Delhi High Court ordered to restore the X account of Cockroach Janata Party. The court said that the Central Government had expressed concern about the NEET exam, which is now over. Therefore, there is no longer any basis for keeping the account blocked. The petition was filed by Abhijeet Dipke.
New Delhi [भारत]July 7 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the restoration of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)’s X (formerly Twitter) account. The court said that the main concern raised by the Central Government for blocking the account has now been over, as the NEET exam has been completed.
Justice Swarn Kanta Sharma accepted Abhijeet Dipke’s petition challenging the blocking of the party’s X account and ordered the account to be unblocked. The Court observed that the Centre’s main apprehension, which was the basis for the blocking action, was related to the conduct of the NEET exam. Since the examination is now over, the Court held that this concern is no longer relevant and directed the account to be reinstated.
Previous hearings and arguments
Dipke had approached the High Court challenging the blocking of Cockroach Janata Party’s X account and demanded its immediate restoration. The order comes after the case was earlier heard by Justice Purushindra Kumar Kaurav, who had refused to grant interim relief. He had directed the Statutory Review Committee under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking Access to Information by the Public) Rules, 2009 to examine the petitioner’s complaints and sought a response from the Centre.
In the previous hearing, senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Dipke, had argued that even if some posts were found objectionable, those posts could be blocked, while the account should be restored. He had also sought the introduction of blocking orders and said courts have earlier adopted similar approaches in cases involving social media accounts.
Centre’s argument and court’s final decision
The central government had opposed the petition citing concerns arising from the activities of the account. Accepting the petition, Justice Swarn Kanta Sharma held that the main concern raised by the Center has been resolved after the completion of NEET exam and accordingly directed to unblock the X account of Cockroach Janata Party. (ANI)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet News editorial staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)