Delhi HC orders immediate ban on shadow libraries in India

Delhi HC orders immediate ban on shadow libraries in India

The Delhi High Court has ordered the immediate ban of shadow libraries like Sci-Hub and Libgen in India.

The court has directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to take action within 24 hours.

The case against these platforms was filed by a group of publishers, including Elsevier, Wiley Periodicals, and the American Chemical Society, in 2020.

Publishers accused platforms of online piracy

The publishers accused Sci-Hub and Libgen of violating copyright laws and engaging in online piracy.

In the first hearing, the court ordered these platforms not to share new papers copyrighted by these publishers until the next hearing.

However, an investigation revealed that articles published in 2022 were later found on Sci-Hub and another platform called Sci-Net, violating the orders issued in 2020.