{"id":4427,"date":"2026-11-14T16:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T11:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4427"},"modified":"2026-11-14T16:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T11:03:51","slug":"modis-office-summons-telecom-secretary-over-use-of-fake-court-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4427","title":{"rendered":"Modi’s office summons telecom secretary over use of fake court orders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s office summoned the telecommunications secretary on Saturday to explain how officials ordered the takedown of more than 100 websites based on fake court orders, two government officials said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The intervention from Modi\u2019s office signals intensifying scrutiny after \u200bReuters reported on Wednesday<\/a> that telecom officials directed internet providers to block 129 illegal betting websites based on \u200bfake High Court orders which were emailed to officials by people posing as lawyers.<\/p>\n

While online \u2060betting is illegal in India, the case has raised concerns that a lack of safeguards in India\u2019s content-takedown \u200bsystem could allow falsified court documents to be used to block legitimate websites.<\/p>\n

The findings have triggered a criminal investigation \u200bby state police into potential forgery and cheating by unidentified people.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s office summoned Telecom Secretary Amit Agrawal to appear and explain the lapse, cutting short Agrawal\u2019s trip to another state, said the two government officials with knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n

Agrawal is the most \u200bsenior bureaucrat in the telecommunications ministry, which oversees everyone from big telecom operators to internet providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe action taken \u200bby the Department of Telecommunications against betting accounts was carried out through the relevant field officers,\u201d one of the officials said.<\/p>\n

Agrawal, \u200chis ministry \u2060and Modi\u2019s office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Court precedents generated using AI have caused concerns among judges the world over. India\u2019s Supreme Court in July set aside a tribunal\u2019s orders that relied on non-existent judgments, and a US judge recently disqualified lawyers over use of fabricated legal citations.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Reuters reported that the telecoms ministry \u200bhad initiated<\/a> an internal investigation \u200binto the alleged fraud, while \u2060police have sought ministry records as part of a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

The two state court orders flagged as fake by Reuters, based on comments from police and the court \u200bregistry, contained fabricated court logos and seals, as well as a fake QR \u200bcode.<\/p>\n

They were available \u2060publicly on the Department of Telecommunications\u2019 website for months, along with correspondence that showed government officials ordering internet providers to remove the websites.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, one of the fake court orders was still accessible on the government\u2019s website, while one \u2060had been \u200bremoved.<\/p>\n

Amid growing concerns over fake orders, India\u2019s Supreme Court justices last \u200byear said such fabrication \u201cbearing forged signatures of Judges strikes at the very foundation of public trust\u201d and \u201csuch grave criminal acts cannot be treated as \u200bordinary or routine offences\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s office summoned the telecommunications secretary on Saturday to explain how officials ordered the takedown of more than 100 websites based on fake court orders, two government officials said. The intervention from Modi\u2019s office signals intensifying scrutiny after \u200bReuters reported on Wednesday that telecom officials directed internet providers to block 129 illegal betting websites based on \u200bfake High Court orders which were emailed to officials by people posing as lawyers. While online \u2060betting is illegal in India, the case has raised concerns that a lack of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}