To:

Shri B.B. Bahl,

Joint Director and Public Information Officer (RTI)
Office of PIO (RTI)
Room No 1016, Electronics Niketan
Department of Information Technology (DIT)
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

Sub: Information regarding the blocking of internet website domains

Date: July 19, 2006

Dear Sir,
I, along with several other internet users across the country, have been unable to access the following
websites as well as their sub-domains:
http://www.blogspot.com
http://www.geocities.com
http://www.typepad.com

http://sub-domain.blogspot.com
http://sub-domain.typepad.com

On contacting the relevant ISPs, their users were told that these websites have been blocked under a
directive of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India.

I would like to use the Right to Information Act to ascertain the following:

1. Has there been a directive issued by the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology to
block the aforementioned domains?
2. If so, why has this blanket block come into force?
3. Why have these particular domain names been specifically blocked?
4. If the directive required ISPs to block certain web pages, would the Ministry of Communications &

Information Technology take action against ISPs for this blunt blanket block?
5. When will this block cease to exist?
6. If no such directive has been issued, why are these websites being blocked? Will the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology take action against ISPs for blocking websites
arbitrarily?
7. Who is responsible for ensuring that Indian citizens have the freedom to access these websites?
8. What form of redressal does an Indian citizen have to ensure that these websites are no longer
blocked?
9. If there has been a directive from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and
considering the fact the most of the websites blocked do not contain pornography, speeches of hate,
contempt, slander or defamation, or promote gambling, racism, violence or terrorism, is the ministry
of communications and Information technology violating the articles 14, 19, and 21 of the
constitution of India?

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I must highlight the fact these websites are used by thousands of Indian citizens to express their views,
thoughts and ideas and as a medium of social networking. Indian Citizens have the right to express their
views freely, and have an unhindered exchange of thoughts and ideas.

Blocking these websites universally and not allowing Indian Citizens to read any of them is equivalent to
hindering the freedom of expression of the individuals.

A similar petition has also been filed with Department of Telecommunications, Government of India.

I request you to kindly look into this matter. Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

Yours Sincerely,

Abhishek Baxi

1302, Sector-14,
Sonipat-131001

Email:
abby@baxiabhishek.info

P.S: To ensure prompt response I would appreciate if information can be divulged through email instead
of postal mail.

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