Karnataka HC Directs Centre To Block Proton Mail In India

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Union government to block Proton Mail, which utilises end-to-end encryption to protect user data, in India.

According to a Bar and Bench report, Justice M Nagaprasanna issued the directions while hearing a petition filed by M Moser Design Associates India. The plea alleged that the email service was used to send vulgar emails about the petitioner’s employees, adding that the platform’s anonymity makes investigations impossible.

The court invoked Section 69A of the IT Act, 2008 and Rule 10 of the 2009 blocking rules to issue the blocking order.

The petitioner argued that Proton Mail allows users to bypass Indian surveillance and doesn’t require identity verification. Citing media reports, the plea alleged that Proton Mail was also used to send recent bomb threats and poses a national security risk.

Arguing for the petitioner, advocate Jatin Sehgal contended that Proton Mail’s website provides instructions for users to evade surveillance by Indian authorities. He also emphasised that creating a Proton ID takes just 30 seconds and does not require any form of ID verification.

During the hearing, the counsel for the Centre told the court that any cooperation from Swiss authorities (the country where Proton is based) must go through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), which can be initiated by a trial court.

The HC ordered immediate takedown of the “offensive” URLs mentioned in the petition till the blocking process of Proton Mail website in India is completed. 

The latest case adds to the mounting pressure on Proton Mail in India. In February this year, the Tamil Nadu police urged the Union IT ministry to block the service in the country after 13 Chennai schools received hoax bomb threats via Proton Mail. 

At the time, the local law enforcement agencies said they were unable to trace the origin of the emails due to the service’s end-to-end encryption and lack of cooperation from the Swiss company. The IT ministry then reportedly agreed to a block order following a recommendation from the Section 69A blocking committee.

Previously, Proton Mail also clashed with Centre. In 2022, it pulled out its physical servers from India in protest against new CERT-In directives mandating data retention by VPNs and cloud service providers. 

The company, in the past, also called India’s surveillance laws “regressive” and described the Telecommunications Act, 2023 as a “threat to democracy”.