Centre orders mobile internet blackout around Jantar Mantar as CJP protest tensions escalate
Home Ministry invokes Telecommunications Act to suspend services for eight hours in a 1.5-km radius, hours after clashes near the protest site
NewsArc Bureau | New Delhi
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday ordered a temporary suspension of mobile internet services across all technologies in a 1.5-km radius around Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, as the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protest site remained on edge following days of unrest.
The order, issued under No.22016/12/2019-CIS-IV/2 from the Ministry’s Room No. 35022 at Kartavya Bhavan, directs the shutdown to take effect from 1600 hrs to 2400 hrs on 23rd July, 2026. It was signed by Under Secretary Mahendra Vikram Singh and addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Delhi.
THE LEGAL BASIS
According to the order, the Union Home Secretary invoked powers under clause (b) of sub-section (2) of Section 20 of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, read with clause (b) of sub-rule 1 of Rule 2 and sub-rule 1 of Rule 3 of the Telecommunications (Temporary Suspension of Services) Rules, 2024. The document states the Home Secretary was “satisfied that, in the interest of public safety and averting public emergency, it is necessary and expedient” to suspend services “in the interest of public order and for preventing incitement to the commission of any offence.”
BACKGROUND
The order comes against the backdrop of weeks of escalating unrest at Jantar Mantar, where supporters of the CJP — a satirical movement-turned-protest platform founded in May by political communications strategist Abhijeet Dipke — have been camped since early June, demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET examination paper-leak controversy.
The demonstration gained national traction after Ladakhi environmentalist and education activist Sonam Wangchuk joined the sit-in on 28th June and began an indefinite hunger strike. He was later forcibly shifted to hospital by police, and is currently undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital, Gurugram, following a Delhi High Court order transferring him there from Safdarjung Hospital.
Tensions boiled over on 20th July, when Delhi Police used batons and tear gas to stop a “Sansad Chalo” march by demonstrators toward Parliament, leaving several protesters and police personnel injured. In the days since, the situation around the protest site has remained volatile, with reports of an attack on a police contingent near Connaught Place in which miscreants allegedly pelted stones and bottles at personnel, injuring an officer.
Wangchuk has said he would call off his fast if the Centre assured that no punitive action or FIRs would be initiated against students and youth who took part in the protests. CJP founder Dipke, meanwhile, has appealed to police and paramilitary personnel not to use force against demonstrators, questioning on social media whether the internet suspension was a precursor to a fresh crackdown.
Thursday’s order marks the latest instance of authorities invoking internet shutdown powers around the protest site, a step that has repeatedly drawn criticism from CJP supporters even as the government maintains such measures are necessary to prevent the spread of misinformation and coordination of unlawful activity in sensitive law-and-order situations.
(This is a developing story. NewsArc India will update this report as further details emerge.)
