The Delhi High Court ordered the restoration of the Cockroach Janta Party’s X handle on Tuesday.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma was hearing a petition filed by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet
Dipke against the Centre’s decision to withhold its X handle on May 21.
This came after the Centre informed the High Court that the account was withheld to prevent “chaos” ahead of the NEET re-test and that there would be no difficulty revoking it now.
Shortly after the court order, the CJP’s original handle, CJP_for_India, could be accessed on X.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the CJP’s social media handle was blocked to avoid “chaos” among students and parents ahead of the June 21 NEET re-test.
“Several posts would have created chaos among the students and their parents. Of course, now the examination is over,” he said.
Stating that there would be no difficulty if directions were issued for revoking the blocking order at this stage, SG Mehta added, “I would only request everyone to be a little more circumspect considering the students.” Justice Sharma said, “Since NEET is already over, the primary concern is no longer of any relevance. In these circumstances, the order is revoked. The petition is allowed.”
In the petition, Dipke, who was represented by senior advocate Akhil Sibal, had said that the CJP’s account was a satire, which was protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. If there was any offending content, the authorities could have specifically blocked that instead of taking a “disproportionate” action.
The plea had asserted that the blocking was in complete violation of the principles of natural justice, as well as the procedural safeguards under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, because the authorities acted without prior notice or providing any reasons to the petitioner.
On May 29, the high court had refused to order the restoration of the CJP’s handle, but asked a review committee under the IT Rules to examine the issue and take a decision before July 7.
