Our Legal Work

The Internet Freedom Foundation is committed to defending and expanding fundamental rights as India gets more digitally connected. As part of this mandate, we strategically engage with courts, regulators, and other legal institutions across India. On this page, we list principles which guide our litigation advocacy and provide details of cases in which we have acted as parties, collaborators or our retained lawyers have acted in the capacity of counsel.

Our principles for strategic litigation

IFF’s litigation advocacy is guided by the following principles:

  • Progressive constitutionalism: We are first and foremost believers in the Constitution of India. While the Constitution was drafted several decades before the invention of the internet, it is a progressive and visionary document. All technologies must respect the fundamental rights of citizens and further constitutional values of justice, equality, liberty and fraternity.
  • Non-Partisanship: We represent all individuals and organizations to achieve systemic policy change regardless of ideological leanings or party politics.
  • Collaboration: We recognize the value of adopting a collaborative approach because the harms arising from new technologies are often disproportionately borne by vulnerable and marginalized groups.
  • Technological expertise: Our board of trustees and group of volunteers consist of several technologists and we also seek input from external experts with domain knowledge. This enables us to assist courts by shedding light on the technological feasibility of different alternatives which may be under consideration.
  • Indigenously funded: IFF is wholly funded by Indian citizens and organizations. We do not accept foreign funding. None of the funding we gather is case specific and we take active steps to ensure transparency, prevent co-option and maintain independence. All funding received by IFF goes into our general corpus.

IFF's case docket

Currently, we are engaged in the following cases:

Court Case Title IFF's Role Issue Documents
Supreme Court Antony Clement Rubin v. Union of India [T.C. (C) No. 189 of 2020] Intervenor Anonymity, Encryption, Intermediary Liability (link)
Supreme Court Foundation for Media Professionals v. U.T. of Jammu & Kashmir [M.A. No. 1086 of 2020 in Diary No. 10817 of 2020] Counsel Internet Shutdowns (link)
Supreme Court Internet Freedom Foundation v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No. 44 of 2019] Petitioner Surveillance Reform (link)
Supreme Court Karmanya Singh Sareen v. Union of India [I.A. No. 4 of 2017 in S.L.P. (C) No. 804 of 2017] Intervenor WhatsApp Privacy Policy, Data Protection (link)
Supreme Court Private School Association J&K v. U.T. of Jammu & Kashmir [W.P. (C) No. 63 of 2021] Counsel Internet Shutdowns (link)
Supreme Court Journalist Union of Assam v. Union of India [W.P. (Crl.) No. 498 of 2021] Counsel Section 124A, IPC (link)
Delhi High Court SnT Hostings v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No.13997 of 2022] Counsel Innovation (link)
Delhi High Court Apar v. CPIO, MHA & Ors [W.P. (C) No.5662 of 2022] Petitioner Surveillance (link)
Delhi High Court Elsevier Ltd. & Ors vs Alexandra Elbakyan & Ors [I.A. No. 14908/2021 in CS(COMM) No. 572/2020] Counsel Website Blocking, Copyright, and Free Speech (link)
Delhi High Court Saurav Das v. CPIO, NeGD & Ors. [W.P. (C) No. 10873 of 2020] Counsel Aarogya Setu, Transparency, RTI (link)
Delhi High Court Tanul Thakur v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No. 13037 of 2019] Counsel Website Blocking (link)
Kerala High Court Jackson Mathew v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No.9882 of 2020 & W.P. (C) No.17439 of 2020] Counsel Aarogya Setu, Data Protection (link)
Kerala High Court LiveLaw Media & Ors. v. Union of India [W.P (C) No. 6272 of 2021] Counsel IT Rules 2021 (link)
Kerala High Court Indian Kanoon in XXX v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No. 21917 of 2020] Counsel Right to be Forgotten (link)
Madras High Court K Suthan v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No. 10180 of 2020] Intervenor OTT Regulation (link)
Madras High Court T.M. Krishna v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No. 12515 of 2021] Counsel IT Rules 2021 (link)
Rajasthan High Court Udaipur Chambers of Commerce and Industry & Anr. v. State of Rajasthan [D.B. Civil Writ (PIL) 5587/2022] Counsel Internet Shutdown (link)
Telangana High Court S.Q. Masood vs State of Telangana & Anr. [W.P. (PIL) No. 191 of 2021] Counsel Facial Recognition Technology (link)
Bombay High Court Sushant Singh vs Union of India & Ors. [W.P. (C) No. 1133 of 2022] Counsel Website Blocking

Past litigation

We have previously been involved in the following matters:

Court Case Title IFF’s Role Issue Documents
Supreme Court Foundation for Media Professionals v. Ajay Kumar Bhalla & Ors. [Contempt Petition (C) No. 411 of 2020] Counsel Internet Shutdowns (link)
Supreme Court Foundation for Media Professionals v. U.T. of Jammu & Kashmir [Diary No. 10817 of 2020] Counsel Internet Shutdowns (link)
Supreme Court Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India [I.A. No. 139555 of 2019 in W.P. (C) No. 1031 of 2019] Counsel Communication Shutdowns (link)
Supreme Court People’s Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India [M.A.No. 3220 of 2018 in W.P. (Crl.) No. 199 of 2013] Counsel Enforcement of Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (link)
Supreme Court People's Union For Civil Liberties v. Union of India [M.A. No. 901 of 2021] Counsel Section 66A, IT Act (link)
Delhi High Court Apar v. CPIO, MHA & Ors [W.P. (C) No.12584 of 2021] Petitioner Surveillance (link)
Delhi High Court Dr. Satendra Singh v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No.5959 of 2020] Counsel Digital Health ID Project, Public Consultation (link)
Delhi High Court Subodh Gupta v. Herdsceneand [I.A. No. 15586 of 2019 in C.S. (OS) No. 483 of 2019] Counsel Defamation, Press Freedom (link)
Delhi High Court Justice for Rights v. Union of India [C.M.A. No. 12759 of 2019 in W.P. (C) No. 11164 of 2018] Applicant Section 66A, IT Act (link)
Delhi High Court Laksh Vir Singh Yadav v. Union of India [W.P. (C) No. 1021 of 2016] Intervenor Right to be Forgotten (link)
Calcutta High Court Ashlesh Biradar vs State of West Bengal [W.P.A. (P) No. 104 of 2022] Counsel Internet Shutdown (link)
Gujarat High Court Internet Freedom Foundation v. State of Gujarat [W.P. (PIL) No. 11718 of 2019] Petitioner App Bans and Misuse of Section 144, CrPC (link)
Court of Justice for European Union Google LLC v. CNIL France [Case C‑507/17] Intervenor Global Content Removal (link)

Please note that our published material and correspondence does not constitute legal advice unless specifically stated as such by one of our legal counsel. If your digital rights have been violated and you require legal assistance, please write to us at [email protected]

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