Delhi HC directs Centre to furnish blocking order for Briar messaging app

The order was in response to an appeal filed by Briar against a decision of a one-member bench of the Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court ordered the Union government to furnish either a redacted or a summary of the blocking order for Briar, a decentralised, end-to-end encrypted messaging platform.

This would be one of the very rare instances that a blocking order would be made available for the affected parties, as such orders, which are given under the Blocking Rules of 2009, are confidential in nature. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is the nodal ministry for such orders.

In an order from August 21, a bench comprising of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela directed the government to furnish the same by September 4. The matter was not reported earlier.

".. he (Briar) does not wish to further challenge the impugned blocking order. He, however, prays that a redacted copy of the blocking order and/or summary of the blocking order be furnished to the appellant. This Court is of the view that the request made by learned counsel for the appellant is fair and reasonable," the order reviewed by the publication read.

In 2023, Briar, along with 13 other messaging applications were banned in India under Section 69A of the IT Act. The ban was implemented based on the recommendation of intelligence agencies, as these apps were allegedly being used by terror groups.

A Briar spokesperson had told Moneycontrol then that the app was not notified by either the government or Google regarding the ban. Soon after, Briar challenged the blocking order before the Delhi High Court seeking directions, including to publish the blocking order through writ petition.

Last month, single-Judge bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed the writ petition filed by Briar.

Following that, the messaging service appealed to a higher bench, which on August 21, passed the recent order directing the government to furnish the blocking order.

""Earlier, in most cases, blocking orders have been furnished to the court under sealed cover, which is very opaque. The Supreme Court in itself has said the same in the Madhyamam case (ban on Media One). Even if the government is furnishing a blocking order under sealed cover, then the non-disclosure of reasons should be proved through cogent material. The judge, too, has to put his mind that non-disclosure is warranted.," said Software Freedom Law Center's Arjun Adrian Dsouza who provided legal assistance to Briar.

Other apps that were reported to have been blocked under the direction of the Union government include UK-based decentralised messaging platform Element, Germany-headquartered ‘encrypted chat app’ Crypviser, Enigma (developed by Incubeta UK), Switzerland-based SafeSwiss, Amazon Web Services-owned Wickr Me, US-headquartered MediaFire, Canada-based Nandbox and so on.