An Indian court has instructed the government to block access to Proton Mail, a well-known Swiss provider of encrypted email services, throughout the country.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna of the Karnataka High Court issued the directive on Tuesday, citing the Information Technology Act of 2008. The court’s decision stemmed from a complaint filed earlier this year by M Moser Design Associates, a firm based in New Delhi. In the complaint, the firm stated its employees had been targeted with emails containing obscene and offensive material, sent anonymously using Proton Mail.
Despite a formal complaint lodged with local police, Proton Mail reportedly refused to disclose the identities of the email senders, prompting the firm to seek intervention from the court. Considering the allegations and evidence provided, Justice Nagaprasanna ordered that “access to Proton Mail should be blocked,” emphasizing his observations made during the proceedings.
Representing the Indian government, Additional Solicitor General Aravind Kamath indicated earlier in the hearings that the administration had a limited ability to act on the issue independently. Kamath suggested that criminal courts could formally request the information from Swiss law enforcement to identify the culprits behind such communications.
As of now, the blockage ordered by the court has not yet been implemented, with Proton Mail still accessible within India.
This ruling represents the latest development in Proton Mail’s ongoing regulatory challenges in India. Just one year ago, the Tamil Nadu state police had requested that Proton Mail be blocked after the service was implicated in sending hoax bomb threats to local schools. The Indian IT Ministry initially instructed internet service providers to block the email platform; however, an intervention by Swiss authorities at the time prevented the measure from going into effect.
Responding to similar past attempts at blocking their service, Proton Mail has argued that such actions merely limit secure communication for law-abiding citizens without effectively stopping criminals, who could easily switch to other email platforms.
India’s scrutiny of Proton Mail intensified further following an October 2024 instruction by the Delhi High Court, which directed law enforcement and the Home Affairs Ministry to examine the use of Proton Mail more broadly across the nation. Additional Solicitor General Kamath has assured that these prior judicial observations are being reviewed and considered carefully in ongoing deliberations over Proton Mail’s operations in the country.
