The Delhi High Court held the websites Sci-Hub and its sister site Sci-Net as “rogue” for facilitating massive copyright infringement and directed authorities to block access to these sites in India.
The plaintiffs, major academic publishers including Elsevier Ltd., sued to restrain the defendant Alexandra Elbakyan, operator of Sci-Hub, which is a platform providing unauthorized access to copyrighted scientific articles and books. The suit claimed extensive copyright violations through illegal reproduction and distribution of their content. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant continued infringing copyright even after a prior undertaking and court orders to cease uploading protected works.
Defendant Elbakyan, a Russian national, manages Sci-Hub and related mirror websites hosting tens of millions of research papers obtained and shared without permission. After initial court undertakings prohibiting further uploads, defendant allegedly circumvented orders by uploading copyrighted works post-2022 on Sci-Hub and the newer platform Sci-Net. The plaintiffs showed evidence of continued piracy, enlisting web traffic, the volume of copyrighted works hosted, and established the defendant’s wilful contempt.
The Bench comprising Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora relied on Supreme Court precedents and prior judgments by Delhi and foreign courts categorizing Sci-Hub as a “rogue” website due to its primary objective to facilitate copyright infringement. It emphasized that blocking individual URLs is ineffectual, given frequent domain and URL shifts; thus, blocking the entire site is necessary.
The Court noted the defendant’s deliberate circumvention of court orders by using Sci-Net and further facilitating piracy despite legal restraints. The defendant’s attempt to separate Sci-Net from Sci-Hub was rejected, as both sites are controlled by same operator, which is evident from documentary proofs. The Court also underscored the importance of adhering to copyright laws to protect academic publishers and the integrity of intellectual property.
In conclusion, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) were directed to issue notifications and orders blocking the domains sci-hub.ru, sci-hub.se, sci-hub.st, and sci-net.xyz from Indian ISPs within 72 hours. Internet service providers must enforce immediate site-blocking upon receipt of orders.
These blocking orders remain in force until further orders. Further hearings are scheduled for December 1, 2025.
Cases relied on:
1. UTV Software Communication Ltd. and Ors. vs 1337x.to and Ors., 2019 SCC OnLine Del 8002
Appearances:
For the Plaintiffs: Mr. Saikrishna Rajagopal, Ms. Sneha Jain, Ms. Disha Sharma, Ms. Snehima Jauhari, Ms. Surabhi Pande and Ms Disha, Advocates
For the Defendants: Mr. Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj and Mr. Nilesh Jain and Ms. Shivani Vij, Advocates for D-1
Mr. Dev Pratap Shahi, Mr. Varun Pratap Singh and Mr. Yogya Bhatia, Advs. for R-12 and 13 on behalf of Mr. Rohan Jaitley, CGSC
Mr. Jawahar Raja and Ms. Aditi Saraswat, Advs. for Intervenors in I.A. 590/2021
