Indian officials ordered 129 websites blocked using fake court orders. An efficient justice system: they eliminated the part where a court has to do anything.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office summoned the telecom secretary on Saturday, Reuters reports, after discovering that people posing as lawyers had emailed fabricated High Court orders to officials. Police and the ministry are investigating. The sites involved were illegal betting operations; the concern is that the same machinery could block legitimate ones. The machinery appears impressively indifferent to the distinction between a judge and an attachment.

The documents carried fake court logos, seals and a fake QR code. That is a remarkable amount of verification-shaped decoration. Someone supplied a symbol that means “check this,” and the package nevertheless produced official blocking instructions.

Then the government published the forged orders on its own website, alongside correspondence directing providers to block the sites. The fakes stayed publicly available for months. They had acquired something better than a convincing logo: a government address.

Now police have requested ministry records for the criminal investigation. At least the reading material is conveniently located.

The Daily Heckler: five or six selected stories.
Political satire for your morning inbox.