The government iscontemplating ban on Google Maps and Bing Maps for questioning the territorialintegrity of the country. It has been come to notice of the Governmentauthorities that Global version (.com domain) & Chinese version (.cndomain) of Google is displaying the maps in distortive manner which is grosslymisrepresentative of stated Indian official position with regard to itspolitical maps in accordance with rules and guidelines laid down by the Surveyof India, a Government arm which is responsible for topographical surveys andpublishing authoritative topographical and geographical maps of India. TheGovernment of India considers that maps published for use in the country shouldcontain accurate and reliable information, particularly with regard to theexternal boundaries and coast-lines of India as wrong depiction of theseamounts to questioning the territorial integrity. Accordingly, instructionshave been issued from time to time by the Government of India (Ministry ofDefence, External Affairs, Home and erstwhile Ministry of Scientific Research& Cultural Affairs) imposing restrictions on scale and contents of mapswhich are published. It would be pertinent to mention here that thatpublication of maps depicting inaccurate external boundaries and coast-lines ofIndia tantamount to questioning the territorial integrity of India and is acognizable offence under the CriminalLaw Amendment Act, 1961. Section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1961 (Act No.23 of 1961) clearly states thatwhoever by words either spoken or written, or by signs, or visiblerepresentation or otherwise, questions the territorial integrity or frontiersof India in a manner which is, or is likely to be prejudicial to the interestsof the safety or security of India, shall be punishable with imprisonment for aterm which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both. Further, theprovision of Section 5 of the OfficialSecret Act, 1923 is also attracted to the offending act which interaliapunishes a person with imprisonment of three years or/with fine if he has inpossession any sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or informationwhich is likely to assist, directly or indirectly, an enemy or which relates toa matter the disclosure of which is likely to affect the sovereignty andintegrity of India, the security of the State or friendly relations withforeign States -------“.

The wrongly depicted map inthe aforesaid websites are going to be blocked / banned in India by theMinistry of Communications and Information Technology, by invoking the Section 69A of the InformationTechnology (Amendment) Act, 2008 read with the Information Technology(Procedures and safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public)Rules 2009. While the newly inserted Section 69A empowers the designatedgovernment authority to direct any Intermediary (read Internet ServiceProvider) any website or transmission of any information to be accessed by thegeneral public. The blocking order can be issued by the designated governmentauthority in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defense ofIndia, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or publicorder or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence.It may be noted that grounds mentioned in Section 69A to block the websites aresimilar to those mentioned under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of Indiawhich restricts the fundamental rights including right to freedom of speech& expression. The InformationTechnology (Procedures and safeguards for Blocking of Access of Informationby Public) Rules 2009 as the name suggests lays down the procedures, guidelinesfor blocking of the website or information generated, transmitted via internetfor the general public. The rule makes provision for designated officer notbelow the rank of Joint Secretary who shall be designated by the centralgovernment for the purpose of issuing direction for blocking for access by thepublic any objectionable website. As per the said rules the general publiccannot make complaint directly to the designated officer who shall act only onthe complaint received by either the Nodal officer to be nominated by eachgovernment organization or the competent court. As in the present case, aperson may complaint to the nodal officer of the survey of India who in turnwould bring it to the notice of the designated officer as mentioned in theaforesaid rules. The rule makes provision for the establishment of thecommittee comprising of the designated officer as its chairman, andrepresentatives (not below the rank of Joint Secretary) from the Ministry ofLaw & Justice, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Information &Broadcasting and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team. The committee shall examinethe complaint along with the contents of the objectionable website, informationetc. The committee would also send notice to the intermediary or person inpossession of the computer resource hosting the objectionable content and givethem an opportunity of making a representation and finally would make itsrecommendation to the to the Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & InformationTechnology, Government of India. If the recommendation of the committee isapproved by the Secretary DIT, the designated officer shall direct any agencyof the Government or the intermediary to block the offending informationgenerated, transmitted, hosted etc. in their computer resource for publicaccess with the stipulated time as mentioned in the said direction. Theprovision also provides for the blocking of information in case of emergency inwhich delay cannot be tolerated and in such a situation the right of theintermediary to make a representation before the committee is done away with,which means that in such an emergency situation the designated officer canblock the offending content. However, in this case also the committee afterblocking the website has to make recommendation (for blocking) to the SecretaryDIT which can accept the recommendation or reject it in which case theintermediary can unblock the information which was temporarily blocked by theorder of the designating officer.

The Google authorities arejustifying their global policy to depict disputed regions as per the claimsmade by the disputing / claiming nations on its global properties which doesnot in any way endorse or affirm the position taken by any side but merelyprovides complete information on the prevailing geo-political situation to ourusers of global properties in a dispassionate and accurate manner. Moreover,the Google authorities are claiming that in a particular country, they have tocomply with the local laws, which means that when operating in ChineseCyberspace, they have to depict Indian map as per the official Chineseposition. Despite the legal compulsion,claimed by the Google authorities, the fact is that the maps depicted by themamounts to questioning the territorial integrity of India which is punishableunder Section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1961 read with Section 5 ofthe Official Secret Act, 1923. The Indian authorities have every right under Section 69A IT Act, 2000 to blockthe access of such websites depicting such wrongful maps for access to thegeneral public.

Neeraj Aarora

(Advocate)