After court order, DoT blocks 78 web links critical of IIPM

Following a court order, the Department of Telecommunications has ordered Internet service providers (ISPs) to block 78 web links containing material critical of Arindam Chaudhuri-promoted business school Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM).

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued the order on Thursday.

"We are only following directive by a Gwalior court that has ordered blocking of these websites," Gulshan Rai, director general of Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) told The Indian Express.

Notably, the first uniform resource locator (URL) address in the list is of a notification issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The UGC has issued advisories in the past stating that IIPM is not a university that comes within the ambit of Section 2(f) of the UGC Act 1956 and does not have the right of conferring or granting degrees.

When contacted, UGC said that its legal department was still to get any information in this regard.

Following the DoT move, attempts to open the links in the list result in the display of the message: "The page you have requested has been blocked, because the URL has been blocked as per DoT (India) guidelines."

Other URLs that have been blocked include website of various media houses. Along with the link of the story on the website of The Indian Express, the other blocked links include those from The Economic Times, The Times of India and Outlook, among others.

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