New Delhi: For a PhD scholar based in New Delhi, the high court’s order to block access to ‘shadow libraries’ like Sci-Hub, Sci-Net and Library Genesis (LibGen) could not have come at a worse time.
On 19 August, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora of the Delhi HC ordered the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to instruct internet and telecom service providers to block Sci-Hub, LibGen, and other mirror domains within 72 hours.
Shadow libraries are unauthorised online repositories that offer free access to copyrighted digital content, such as academic books, research papers, and software, that would normally be behind paywalls or subscription fees. They operate outside the traditional publishing system and emerged as a response to the high costs of academic material, aiming to democratise knowledge by providing free access, especially for scholars and students in developing countries
“The ban has a direct impact on the ability to carry forward research projects, conference papers, and ongoing work,” a researcher from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, who wished to stay anonymous, told ThePrint. He added that most journal articles necessary for research purposes are usually locked behind expensive paywalls. “For many researchers in the Global South, especially in India, paying for them is simply not possible.”
The researcher is currently in the early stages of his doctoral work, which means reading widely and locating precise reference material. The research often requires specific data, quotations, or bibliographic references, and without access to these, the work comes to a standstill, the researcher explained.
“There are researchers and students based abroad whose university libraries/institutions provide easy access to journals, but in India that access is very limited,” he said, adding that many institutions in India do not have subscriptions, and researchers are often left without reliable alternatives. “This does create an inequality between those studying overseas, with ready access to resources, and those in India, where access is either non-existent or extremely difficult.”
His frustration is widely shared. In public universities across India, where budgets for libraries and journal subscriptions are limited, platforms like Sci-Hub and LibGen have long been lifelines. Their sudden disappearance threatens to derail the everyday academic work of thousands of students and researchers.
Seeking alternatives
The ruling came in response to a copyright infringement case filed by publishing giants Elsevier, Wiley, and the American Chemical Society. They alleged that Sci-Hub and LibGen “completely disregard copyright laws” by reproducing and distributing their works, articles, journals, and even full books, without permission. Their case dates back to 2020, when the high court temporarily barred the sites from uploading new content.
For publishers, the issue is that their editorial, curatorial, and distribution work requires compensation, and free access platforms undermine the business model that sustains journals. For many researchers in India, however, the decision represents yet another example of how global knowledge is “priced out of reach”.
The fight over Sci-Hub is not new. Since its creation in 2011 by Kazakh programmer Alexandra Elbakyan, Sci-Hub has been at the centre of lawsuits across the world. Elbakyan has described the platform as a necessary intervention against academic gatekeeping.
ThePrint reached Elbakyan through text for comment but had not received a response by the time of publishing. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
In 2024, the Government of India, through the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and Springer Nature (a German-British academic publishing company), launched the second edition of the National Research Tour to promote Open Access (a movement to provide free, immediate, and unrestricted online access to scholarly research outputs, including journal articles, books, and data) and strengthen research across the country.
Spanning 17 cities in 9 states, the 30-day initiative included workshops, training sessions, and global resources. According to ICSSR, the aim was to enhance research integrity, advance Open Access, align with Sustainable Development Goals, and ensure equity in research.
Left with few options, researchers are now falling back on informal workarounds including asking friends or colleagues abroad who have access through their university libraries.
Other than that, the researcher quoted above explained, the only option is to directly reach out to authors. “Sometimes they’re kind enough to share, but many decline due to copyright restrictions.”
Another option is relying on academic communities on platforms like Reddit or Facebook where people request and share articles with each other, he explained.
Such methods, however, are inconsistent and slow, often delaying critical research work. “A fairer solution would be affordable and open access to academic work. Researchers in countries like India should not be forced to depend on informal networks just to read basic scholarly literature,” he said.
‘Collapse of research culture’
Harleen Kaur, a researcher working with The Digital Futures Lab (DFL) says India’s research ecosystem is “grossly underfunded” and that the publishers’ “tight control” of knowledge often leads to a deepened inequality. “The Sci-Hub order makes one think of the distinction between what is illegal versus what is immoral,” Kaur told ThePrint.
Kaur said she sees a corollary between research getting published and the recent “big questions” around big Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies freely capitalising on the labour performed by people to create products.
“Even though technically, publishers put in more effort in convening a journal and publishing it, the researchers who make it happen, including peer reviewers, are not paid fairly for their efforts. The access costs of single articles run in thousands of Indian rupees for a researcher in India if their academic institution does not provide it,” she said.
A senior professor at JNU, Ajay Gudavarthy, argued that the ban reflects a deeper crisis in higher education. Calling it a global momentum to “undermine” higher education, he noted that if publishers are concerned about copyright, they should fund universities and public libraries.
“The fund crunch in libraries goes hand-in-hand with heightened concern for copyright violation. If students can’t read, the culture of research itself will collapse. That is more detrimental than piracy,” Gudavarthy said.
Library budgets in India have been shrinking steadily, particularly in state universities.
At the same time, subscription costs for major journals have risen, often running into lakhs of rupees per year for a single publisher’s package. For many institutions, keeping up is no longer feasible.
Reacting to the ban, Rana Safvi, an author and historian wrote on microblogging site X, that there are two sides to books being available freely on platforms like Lib-Gen and Sci-Hub: The negative side includes “violation” of copyright, risk to smaller journals since they rely on subscriptions, and chances of data leaks and privacy concerns. The positive, however, involves access to expensive books on serious research topics.
As a writer whose books are freely available on libgen & scihub sites, I know there are two sides to this.
of course it violates copyright and undermines the publishing industry. It also puts smaller, specialized journals at risk since they rely on subscriptions. Plus there are… pic.twitter.com/YbgSepi5QM
— Rana Safvi رعنا राना (@iamrana) August 24, 2025
‘Copyright maximalist approach’
The Delhi HC order highlights a fault line that has defined global academia for decades: The struggle between commercial publishers and the Open Access movement.
Srinivas Kodali, another independent researcher, highlighted that India’s copyright law itself provides exemptions for educational use. He told ThePrint, “Technically, universities could run intranet versions of LibGen or Sci-Hub within their networks, and it would be valid.
“Unfortunately, no one will do it. The result is that the shutdown will mostly hurt academics and limit access to knowledge.”
The problem, he added, is not only legal but also political. “There is little appetite within institutions to test these provisions. So the ban ends up being enforced much more harshly than it needs to be.”
During the pandemic, many publishers briefly lifted paywalls to accelerate the sharing of COVID-19 research. For a moment, it seemed as if open science might become the new normal. But those concessions have since been rolled back, and courts have generally sided with publishers in enforcing copyright.
“We are seeing a copyright maximalist approach again,” Mishi Choudhary, the founder of Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) told ThePrint, adding that the case highlights the tension between expensive closed scientific research and copyright interests of publishers. “We must see how such a system and aggressive blocking creates access gaps in the market and prevents flow of information rather than facilitating progress,” she added.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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