Copying gangs, law and order: Exams and Internet shutdowns in Rajasthan

In September of 2022, the Supreme Court admitted a petition filed by Software Freedom Law Centre, that challenged five Indian states — Rajasthan, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Gujarat — for shutting down the internet to prevent cheating during examinations. The petition argued that this practice of ordering internet shutdowns is an arbitrary exercise of the law, being a misinterpretation of the Temporary Suspension of Telecom Services Rules, 2017 and shutdowns issued in this manner are unconstitutional, given the SC’s previous ruling that the right to freedom of speech and expression and the right to carry on business using the medium of internet is constitutionally protected. In this piece, I examine a small database of internet shutdown orders that have been issued by the Rajasthan government to prevent cheating in different examinations. These orders are sourced from the annexure of the SFLC petition, which lists approximately twenty-five government documents corresponding to internet shutdowns that had been issued by the Rajasthan government between 2018-2021 in lieu of examinations. Beyond the patterns and reasonings repeated ad nauseum in the orders, what could explain the Rajasthan government’s tendency to order internet shutdowns around examinations?