Affidavits submitted on internet ban
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 23 2023:
After the High Court of Manipur issued an interim order on June 20 which directed the State authorities to provide limited internet services to the public in some designated places, the respondents listed in four similar PILs submitted an affidavit today.
According to the affidavit, a meeting of internet service providers and officials of the State Government was held on June 7 with the Chief Secretary in the chair.
During the meeting, the internet service providers suggested that there is feasibility of providing limited services to the public by blocking social media websites in respect of broadband service however, there is one technical difficulty in that, the consumers/public can access the social media websites by using Virtual Private Network (VPN) servers which is readily available in the market.
Another option given by the service providers is that internet service can be provided to limited consumers/public by white listing particular mobile numbers or broadband connections.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Ahanthem Bimol Singh and Justice A Guneshwar Sharma, after perusing the affidavit, listed the matter on June 27 .
The High Court also directed the counsels appearing for the service providers as well as the Department of Information Technology, Government of India to arrange for providing technical experts to appear before the Court personally or through virtual mode on June 27 .
High Court has also impleaded the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology represented by its Secretary, National Informatics Centre represented by State Informatics Officer, Manipur, Department of Information Technology, Manipur represented by Commissioner/ Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Manipur and Director, Information Technology, Government of Manipur as official respondents of the PILs.