Delhi High Court orders restoration of Cockroach Janta Party's X account

Guwahati: Today, the Delhi High Court directed the restoration of the Twitter account of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), observing that the Union Government's primary reason for blocking the account no longer existed as the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examination had concluded.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma allowed a petition filed by Abhijeet Dipke challenging the blocking of the party's X account and ordered that it be restored.

The Court observed that the Centre's principal concern, which had formed the basis for blocking the account, was linked to the conduct of the NEET examination. Since the examination was now over, the Court held that the apprehension no longer survived and directed the authorities to unblock the account.

Dipke had approached the High Court seeking the immediate restoration of the Cockroach Janta Party's X account, contending that its suspension was unjustified.

The matter had earlier been heard by Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, who declined to grant interim relief. Instead, the Court directed the statutory Review Committee under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009, to examine the petitioner's grievances while seeking a response from the Union Government.

During the earlier hearing, Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Dipke, argued that even if certain posts on the account were considered objectionable, only those specific posts should remain blocked rather than the entire account. He also sought production of the blocking order and submitted that courts had adopted a similar approach in previous cases involving social media accounts.

The Union Government opposed the plea, citing concerns arising from the activities of the account.

Allowing the petition, Justice Sharma held that the Centre's principal concern had ceased to exist following the completion of the NEET examination and accordingly directed that the Cockroach Janta Party's X account be unblocked.

Also Read- Cockroach Janta Party Founder Appears Before MeitY Panel Over Twitter Account Suspension