Plea Filed Before Punjab & Haryana HC Seeking Access To Publicly Available Wi-Fi When Govt Suspends Mobile Data

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday sought the responses of the Punjab and Central governments to a petition seeking provision for alternative means of accessing the internet through publicly available Wi-Fi or broadband when the State suspends mobile-data services.

Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj issued notice in the petition and scheduled a hearing on August 8, 2023.

“Notice of motion. Mr. Saurav Verma, Additional Attorney General of Punjab, appears and accepts notice on behalf of respondent No.1 and Mr. Dheeraj Jain, Senior Counsel, Government of India, appears and accepts notice on behalf of respondent No.2-Union of India, and prays for time to complete instructions and file response,” the order stated.

According to the petitioner, the suspension of mobile internet services only has a negative, disproportionate, and discriminatory impact on a specific section of the population whose sole means of accessing the internet is through mobile data services.

“Petitioner and other similarly situated individuals will be the most impacted if the State decides to stop exclusively mobile-data services, as the State of Punjab did in March 2023,” it stated.

It was asserted that such people’s access to the internet is strictly forbidden, in striking contrast to those who use fixed-line broadband or Wi-Fi services. As a result, there was a violation of citizens’ fundamental rights, such as the petitioners.

“On the face of it, because one set of citizens, such as the Petitioner, suffers an absolute prohibition of their fundamental right, while another set of citizens enjoys a reasonably restricted fundamental right,” the petition stated.

The petition further emphasized that such an alternate provision becomes part of the constitutionally mandated “fair, just, and reasonable” procedure established and required by law.

As a result, the petitioner also sought a declaration that recent orders blocking mobile data services in the state breached his fundamental right to access the internet, as construed by the Supreme Court in the case of Anuradha Bhasin v Union of India.

The petition also requested that the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services (Public Emergency or Public Safety) Rules be interpreted down to the extent that they empower authorities to violate fundamental rights.