Log in or register
Share on LinkedInShare on LinkedIn

ARTICLE · 03 JANUARY 2024

India Gets Its New Telecom Act

S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
Contributor
S.S. Rana & Co.

S.S. Rana & Co.

Established in 1989, S.S. Rana & Co. is a premier intellectual property and corporate law firm...

View firm profile
Explore more from S.S. Rana & Co.

This step comes in as the government's policy for complete digitization of services.

IndiaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Vikrant Rana
Vikrant Rana
Anuradha Gandhi
Anuradha Gandhi
Rachita Thakur
Rachita Thakur
Author LinkedIn connections

The Parliament has passed the Telecommunications Bill 2023 which aims to replace is set to replace the existing laws including the 138-year-old Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933. This bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha on the 20th of December 2023 and the Rajya Sabha on the December 21, 2023 respectively. After this, the bill received the President's assent on the December 24, 2023 and has now become the Telecommunications Act, 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act").

The Act allows the government to temporarily take control of telecom services in the interest of national security, and providing a non-auction route for the allocation of satellite spectrum. The Act was passed in the Lok Sabha by a voice note on a short debate.

We operate a free-to-view policy, asking only that you register in order to read all of our content. Please login or register to view the rest of this article.

Register for freeORLog in

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

View source

Related Articles

Legal Intelligence Newsletters: sign up for the latest legal and regulatory news on your chosen topics

Read more about

Related Comparative Guides

See more popular content from

Article

Instagram’s 2026 AI Labelling Rules

Instagram's 2026 policy shift introduces mandatory AI-generated profile labels and penalties for non-disclosure, creating new compliance challenges at the intersection of platform governance and India's statutory framework for synthetically generated information. How do these overlapping regimes affect brands, influencers, and content creators operating in India's digital ecosystem?
IndiaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA)
Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance (GALA)
Article

The Promotion And Regulation Of Online Gaming Act, 2025 And The Promotion And Regulation Of Online Gaming Rules, 2026

The Act, the Rules and the OGAI are therefore simultaneously operational. The prohibition provisions under Chapter III of the Act, the criminal penalties under Chapter V of the Act and the institutional framework under the Rules are all in effect. There is effectively no formal compliance window for core prohibitions and penalties; stakeholders should treat the regime as immediately operational and adjust business models without delay.
IndiaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
King, Stubb & Kasiva
King, Stubb & Kasiva
Article

Telegram Ban In India – The Rise Of Digital Sovereignty

The Delhi High Court's landmark ruling in Telegram FZ LLC v. Union of India addresses whether Section 69A of the IT Act permits the government to block an entire platform rather than specific content. Following the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak scandal, where fraudulent channels circulated fake exam papers affecting millions of aspirants, the court upheld the Centre's power to impose a platform-wide ban on Telegram, sparking intense debate about the boundaries between examination integrity and digital censorship.
IndiaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Hammurabi & Solomon Partners
Hammurabi & Solomon Partners
Article

DOT Notifies Telecom Network Authorisation Rules, 2026: What Has Changed?

On 20 July 2026, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notified the Telecommunications (Authorisation for Telecommunication Network) Rules, 2026 (Rules). The Rules operationalise Section 3(1)(b) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023 and establish a framework for six categories of telecommunication network authorisations: infrastructure provider (IP) (formerly, IP-I), digital connectivity infrastructure provider (DCIP), internet exchange point (IXP) provider, satellite earth station gateway (SESG) provider, cloud-hosted telecommunication network (CTN) provider and mobile number portability (MNP) provider.
IndiaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Khaitan & Co.
Khaitan & Co.
Article

Is Meta Still Just An Intermediary? Why India Is Rethinking Safe Harbour

In mid-September 2026, government sources said Meta Platforms’ Indian operations, Facebook, Instagram and Threads, should no longer be viewed merely as an “internet intermediary” but should also be treated as a “service provider,” arguing that the company’s monetised algorithms actively decide what content gets amplified, distributed and shown to whom. That is a government position, not a new statutory classification, and this article returns to that distinction below.
IndiaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
Article

Use Of Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Courts

On June 3, 2026, the Supreme Court of India’s AI Committee released preliminary draft of the Regulations for Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Courts, 2026 (“The Draft”). This marks a shift from scattered experiments with AI tools for translation, transcription, research and case management. With over 93,000 pending matters as of March 2026, the guidelines aim to ease processes for officials and citizens. AI could help reduce backlogs through automated cause-list preparation, transcription, research, and defect scrutiny, but its use also raises serious concerns.
IndiaTechnology
S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
Article

Copy, Right? ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. v. Open AI OpCo LLC

When an artificial intelligence system is trained on copyrighted news content, and later answers a user’s question using what it learned, has the law been broken? On 24th July 2026, the Delhi High Court answered that question, at least for now. In ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. v. Open AI OpCo LLC, Justice Amit Bansal declined to grant an interim injunction against OpenAI, holding, on a prima facie, interim stage view, that the company’s use of ANI’s news content to train its large language models (“LLMs”) falls within the fair dealing exception under Section 52(1)(a) of the Copyright Act, 1957
IndiaIntellectual Property
S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
Article

FSSAI Raises Turnover Limits For Food Business Registration And Licensing

The change is effected through two instruments: the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Amendment Regulations, 2026, notified via gazette on 10th March, 2026[1] (the “Amendment Regulations”), and a subsequent implementation order dated 13th March, 2026[2] (the “Order”) issued by FSSAI directing all licensing authorities to apply the revised thresholds with effect from 1st April, 2026.
IndiaFood, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences
S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
Article

CERT-In’s New AI-Vulnerability Guidelines: A Quick-Reference For OEMs, Tech Vendors And In-House Counsel

Cybersecurity regulation in India has, until now, largely spoken to the entity that suffers the breach. The 2022 CERT-In Directions issued under Section 70B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 fixed a six-hour reporting clock on the organisation that detects an incident. The new Guidelines flip the lens onto the entity upstream of that breach, the OEM or technology provider that built the product in the first place. For the first time, vendors supplying software, firmware, cloud platforms, or APIs into India carry direct, time-bound, and independently verifiable obligations of their own and not obligations that are merely passed through a customer contract, but obligations CERT-In itself may enforce.
IndiaTechnology
S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
Article

Is Meta Still Just An Intermediary? Why India Is Rethinking Safe Harbour

In mid-September 2026, government sources said Meta Platforms’ Indian operations, Facebook, Instagram and Threads, should no longer be viewed merely as an “internet intermediary” but should also be treated as a “service provider,” arguing that the company’s monetised algorithms actively decide what content gets amplified, distributed and shown to whom. That is a government position, not a new statutory classification, and this article returns to that distinction below.
IndiaMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.
Article

Understanding The 50% Wage Rule Under The Code On Wages, 2019: A Cap On Exclusions, Not A Ceiling On Wages

India’s new labour code framework, comprising four consolidated codes enacted between 2019 and 2020, represents the most comprehensive overhaul of employment laws since independence. Among these, the Code on Wages, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the “Code”) amalgamates the Payment of Wages Act, 1936; the Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965; and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, into a single, unified enactment.
IndiaEmployment and HR
S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co.