Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and X on Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke’s plea against blocking the satirical digital outfit’s social media account and asked the IT ministry’s review committee to examine the issue.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, however, declined to immediately restore the CJP’s X account, which has two lakh followers, observing that the matter was still at a “nascent stage”.
“It is directed that before the next date of hearing, let the review committee examine all such aspects. Let the decision be placed on record,” the court said and listed the matter for July 7 for further hearing.
The court also allowed Dipke, who is in the US, to appear virtually before the committee.
On May 21, the CJP’s X account was withheld in India five days after the meme-driven political movement went viral on social media. Dipke, a former AAP social media communication strategist now studying in Boston, moved the high court challenging the decision.
While hearing Dipke’s plea, the court observed that the IT ministry’s review committee was empowered to examine all aspects of the issue and order the unblocking of the account if satisfied that the directions were not in accordance with provisions of the IT rules.
Senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Dipke, submitted that the digital party’s social media account was purely satirical and urged the court to issue interim directions to unblock the handle. He also submitted that the account could be restored after blocking only the “objectionable” tweets.
“We will consider. This entire law (on blocking) is still at a nascent stage. Let us not precipitate things today. Let them take notice and come back to us,” Justice Kaurav said, observing that the blocking order was not on record.
“Whatever material they have, I can direct them (Centre) to place it,” the judge said.
Sibal cited earlier court orders granting interim relief to other blocked social media handles by directing the withholding of only the offending tweets.
“The defence in those cases was that there were some tweets that were found to be offending. In this case, what seems to be the reason is that the entire activity per se perhaps was slightly offending,” the court remarked.
“They (petitioner’s request to unblock the handle) will be considered holistically after hearing the other side (Centre). There are far-reaching issues. There are wider ramifications,” it added.
Cockroach was thrust into the spotlight after Chief Justice Surya Kant’s controversial comments, allegedly comparing unemployed youths drifting towards activism with cockroaches and parasites.
The CJI later clarified that he was “misquoted” by the media, but by then the comment had triggered a massive online backlash.
Created on May 16, the satirical social media-based “party” gained political heft with Trinamool MPs Kirti Azad and Mahua Moitra expressing interest in joining it on May 17.