Delhi HC refuses urgent hearing on DeepSeek ban petition

In a recent decision, the Delhi High Court declined to schedule and urgent hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) application aimed at banning the Chinese-based large-language AI model DeepSeek.

The PIL, filed by Advocate Bhavna Sharma, contended that the AI model flagrantly disregards data protection and privacy norms prescribed under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and Information Technology Rules, and sought a comprehensive ban on its use across platforms in India.

In its ruling, the court noted that DeepSeek—as well as a host of similar platforms—is readily accessible online. The bench cautioned the petitioner's counsel, remarking that if he perceives DeepSeek as harmful, he need not use it.

The court also observed that numerous potentially harmful materials are already available on the internet, and thus, no compelling case had been presented to justify an expedited hearing.

Adding another layer to the controversy, the Union Ministry of Finance recently issued a directive instructing government employees to refrain from using large-language models like DeepSeek and ChatGPT.

The directive highlighted concerns over the confidentiality of government documents as a primary factor behind this precautionary measure.

The High Court had earlier solicited clarifications from the Centre regarding its position on the DeepSeek model and any possible actions under consideration. This comes against the backdrop of comments made in January by India's IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who announced that the government was working to shift DeepSeek operations to Indian servers.

The move is seen as a response to privacy and data security concerns, considering that DeepSeek currently operates on Chinese servers, while its open-source nature would allow countries like India to replicate the model locally.