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NIXI orders Indian activist to hand over dpdpa.in domain

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NIXI, the National Internet Exchange of India, manages the country's .in domain registry and is wholly government owned: its board is chaired by the secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and mostly staffed by MeitY joint secretaries, with CERT-In's Director General as a co-opted director. On 1 August 2025, NIXI sent Ujvala Consultants Pvt Ltd, whose Managing Director is cyber law activist Naavi, an unsigned notice email stating that the Government of India wanted the domain dpdpa.in for itself. The notice cited clause 12(2) of the .in registration terms, which lets the registry cancel, transfer or freeze a domain to protect its integrity, comply with law enforcement requests, avoid liability, or correct registration mistakes. It gave the registrant 5 working days to respond, a window Naavi expected to close on 7 August, and put the domain under Server lock in the meantime. No show cause notice, documented reason, or copy of any actual government instruction was provided. Naavi says the only reply he received after sending NIXI a formal objection was a phone call from an official identified as Mr Rajiv, asking him to avoid posting about the matter on social media. Naavi argues the seizure amounts to government acquisition of a private citizen's property under Article 300A of the Indian constitution and a curtailment of freedom of expression under Article 19, since he treats a domain name as both property and a means of expression. He contends that if the acquisition is found arbitrary and not proportional to any abuse, the government must rescind it and pay compensation, and that officials involved could be liable for breach of trust. He says he is escalating the dispute to a court of law and is calling on other professionals to email NIXI's leadership in protest. The article also lists 15 other .in domains NIXI has similarly taken, including Mygov.in, G20.in, nseindia.in and bank.in, without publicly documented reasons for any of them. Separately, the piece cites NIXI's own reported growth figures for the .in registry: a surplus of Rs 85.73 crores in fiscal year 2022-23 and a further Rs 85 crores in profit from the .in domain business reported for the most recent year, more than 4.1 million .IN registrations against a 5 million target, expansion of its internet exchange points from 4 to 77 nationwide, over 80% IPv6 coverage, a free 10 GB personalized .IN email service, and international domain name (IDN) launches across all 22 scheduled Indian languages. As of the article's writing, no outcome for dpdpa.in itself is reported: only the notice, Naavi's objection and his stated intent to go to court.

Key facts

  • NIXI, which runs India's .in domain registry and is chaired by the MeitY secretary, sent a notice dated 1 August 2025 demanding that Ujvala Consultants Pvt Ltd hand over the domain dpdpa.in to the Government of India, citing clause 12(2) of the .in registration terms.
  • The notice gave 5 working days to respond, a deadline expected to lapse around 7 August, and stated no documented reason for the seizure beyond that the government 'desires' the domain.
  • Naavi, the registrant and a longtime cyber law activist, argues the move breaches Article 300A (property rights) and Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the Indian constitution and says he is escalating the dispute to court after NIXI's only response was a phone call asking him to avoid social media posts.
  • The article says NIXI reported a Rs 85.73 crore surplus in FY2022-23 and a further Rs 85 crore profit from the .in domain business, alongside growth to over 4.1 million .IN registrations and 77 internet exchange points nationwide.
  • The piece lists 15 other .in domains NIXI has previously reclaimed, including Mygov.in, G20.in, nseindia.in and bank.in, with no documented reasons given for any of them.

Why it matters

NIXI is not a private registrar acting on its own initiative; it is a government owned company whose board answers to India's IT ministry. The dpdpa.in case shows that body using a broadly worded clause in its own terms of service, clause 12(2), to reclaim a domain from a private registrant on the government's say-so alone, without a show cause notice or any documented finding of abuse. That combination, a government controlled registry with wide discretion and minimal process, is what makes this more than a single domain dispute: it tests how much protection a .in registration actually offers against the entity that also administers it.

Who it affects

Directly, Ujvala Consultants Pvt Ltd and Naavi, who registered dpdpa.in and now faces losing it on short notice. More broadly, any holder of a .in domain that touches on government branding, data protection, or public interest topics, since the article lists 15 other domains, among them Mygov.in, G20.in, nseindia.in and bank.in, that NIXI has reclaimed by the same route. Indian businesses weighing .in against .com registrations are the article's stated wider audience.

How to use it

There is no product or service to adopt here; the actionable element is Naavi's public campaign. He is asking supporters to email NIXI's CEO or board members objecting to the dpdpa.in seizure and, by extension, to similar acquisitions of private .in domains without documented justification. He also suggests that businesses concerned about this risk keep a .com registration as backup for any .in domain they hold.

How solid is it

The account comes from Naavi's own blog and is a first person telling by the affected party, not independent reporting; NIXI's side is not represented beyond the notice email and phone call Naavi quotes. The notice text and the constitutional arguments are reproduced directly from the source, and NIXI's growth and financial figures are the article's own summary of NIXI's promotional material, not independently verified in the piece. The post carries a 2025 dateline and was resurfaced on Hacker News with modest engagement: 4 points and 3 comments.

Risks and caveats

The article does not say whether dpdpa.in was actually transferred to the government; it documents only the notice, the objection, and Naavi's stated intent to escalate. No show cause notice or copy of any government instruction requesting the domain is shown, and the source does not identify what abuse, if any, was alleged. No court case name or filing date is given, only an intention to go to court. The reasons behind the 15 other domain acquisitions the article lists are also described as unclear, not confirmed.

“This is to inform you that Govt. of India desires to get the domain dpdpa.in registered for itself.”

— NIXI, in its notice email to the registrant