Is VPN legal in India

There is no law in India that prohibits an individual from using a VPN. Millions of people use one for work every day. What the government regulates is the companies that provide VPN services and where they keep their servers. A VPN is not illegal; using one to do something illegal is still illegal, the same as without one.

In April 2022 CERT-In, the national cyber security agency, directed VPN providers, data centres and cloud services to keep customer records for five years: names, addresses, IP addresses assigned, and usage periods. The rule applies to providers operating servers in India. Enforcement deadlines were extended, and in April 2026 a final deadline was set.

Most privacy-focused providers responded by removing their physical servers from India. NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and others now offer virtual Indian IPs served from Singapore or London instead. We do the same: no servers inside India, so no records to keep and nothing to hand over.

In 2026, on government request, Google and Apple removed fourteen VPN apps from the Indian versions of their stores. That is not a ban on VPN use; it is pressure on providers who had not complied with CERT-In. It is also the reason a key-based service exists: the client you paste a key into is a general purpose tool, not a VPN brand, and has not been the target of removals.

Several districts in South Kashmir have issued temporary orders under Section 163 BNSS restricting VPN use during unrest, citing public order. These are local and time-limited. If you are in Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam or another district with an active order, the order governs; our Kashmir page explains how the networks behave there, not whether you should break a notice.