Guwahati: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the restoration of the X account of satirical platform Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), holding that the Centre’s justification for blocking the account over the 2026 NEET controversy was no longer valid.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav set aside the government’s blocking order, observing that the circumstances cited to justify the restriction had changed. The court noted that concerns over the account allegedly aggravating public unrest linked to the NEET examination had ceased to exist, making the continued suspension unwarranted.
The case stemmed from a petition filed by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who challenged the government’s decision to block the account in India under the Information Technology Act. Dipke had argued that the platform’s content was political satire protected under the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech and expression, and that if any individual posts were objectionable, authorities should have acted only against those posts instead of suspending the entire account.
The High Court had earlier, in May, declined to grant immediate relief and instead directed a review committee constituted under the IT Rules to examine the blocking order before the matter returned to court. The committee’s findings were subsequently placed before the court.
With Tuesday’s order, the court concluded that the government’s stated reasons for continuing the block no longer survived, paving the way for the restoration of the satirical platform’s presence on X.
The ruling is expected to have wider implications for the exercise of the government’s blocking powers under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, particularly in cases involving satire, political commentary and freedom of expression on social media platforms.