Petitioner seeks access to publicly available Wi-Fi

Chandigarh, April 22

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has put the state of Punjab on notice on a petition seeking provision for alternative means to access the Internet through publicly available Wi-Fi or broadband when mobile data services are suspended by the state.

Petitioner Neeraj, through counsel Abhijeet Singh Rawaley, Ashutosh Dhankar and Sahil Mehndiratta, submitted that the suspension of mobile Internet services had an adverse, disproportionate and discriminatory impact on a particular section of citizens, whose sole means to access the Internet was through mobile data services.

Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj’s Bench was told that the petitioner, like a majority of Indians, accessed the Internet solely through mobile data services.

However, Punjab recently imposed a limited Internet ban, whereby only mobile data services such as 4G were stopped. The way the ban was imposed breached the right to equality under Article 14.