Delhi High Court refuses early hearing on plea to ban DeepSeek
A Delhi High Court rejected a petition seeking early hearing of a plea to ban the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek in India. The petitioner alleged data vulnerabilities but the court found no urgency and declined to expedite the case.
What happened
On 25 February 2025, the Delhi High Court rejected a petition for early hearing of a plea seeking to block access to DeepSeek, an AI chatbot developed by Chinese entities, in all forms in India. A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela stated there was no urgency and the matter did not deserve priority hearing.
The petitioner, lawyer Bhavna Sharma, had sought to advance the hearing from 16 April to an earlier date. The petition alleged that within a month of DeepSeek's launch on app stores, various vulnerabilities were discovered causing large-scale leaks of sensitive personal data online, including chat history, back-end data and log streams.
Reported impact
The plea sought to protect the personal data of citizens and data in government systems and devices from cyber attacks and data breaches, and to uphold confidentiality.
Index analysis
The court noted that many types of platforms have been available in India for a long time, including platforms similar to DeepSeek. The court stated that individuals are not required to use everything available on the internet.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.