The Delhi High Court ordered the blocking of Sci-Hub, Sci-Net, and LibGen in India on August 19, 2025, following a copyright infringement case brought by academic publishers Elsevier, Wiley, and the American Chemical Society[^5][^7].

The court found that Alexandra Elbakyan, Sci-Hub's founder, violated her December 2020 undertaking not to upload new copyrighted content by making post-2022 articles available through both Sci-Hub and a new platform called Sci-Net[^7]. While Elbakyan claimed this was due to technical errors and argued Sci-Net was a separate project, the court rejected these arguments[^7].

The ruling requires India's Department of Telecommunications and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to issue blocking orders within 72 hours, with Internet Service Providers required to implement the blocks within 24 hours[^7].

This case marks the first time Sci-Hub and LibGen faced legal action in a developing country[^2]. Earlier intervention attempts by Indian scientists and researchers had argued these platforms were "the only access to educational and research materials" for many academics in India[^2], with social science researchers specifically highlighting the "detrimental effect" blocking would have on research in India[^9].

[^2]: InfoJustice - Update on Publisher's Copyright Infringement Suit Against Sci-Hub

[^5]: Substack - GPT-4o about Sci-hub: The Delhi High Court's latest order

[^7]: SpicyIP - Sci-Hub now Completely Blocked in India!

[^9]: Internet Freedom Foundation - Social Science researchers move Delhi High Court