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The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed restoration of the X (formerly Twitter) account of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), noting that the primary concern cited by the Union Government for blocking the account no longer survived as the NEET examination had concluded.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma allowed the petition filed by Abhijeet Dipke challenging the blocking of the party's X account and ordered that the account be unblocked. The Court observed that the Centre's principal apprehension, which had formed the basis of the blocking action, was linked to the conduct of the NEET examination. Since the examination was now over, the Court held that the concern was no longer relevant and directed the restoration of the account. Dipke had approached the High Court challenging the blocking of the Cockroach Janta Party's X account and sought its immediate restoration. The order comes after the matter was earlier heard by Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, who had declined to grant interim relief and had 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 calling for the Centre's response. At the earlier hearing, Senior Advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Dipke, had argued that even if certain posts were found objectionable, those posts could remain blocked while the account itself should be restored. He had also sought production of the blocking order and submitted that courts had adopted similar approaches in earlier cases involving social media accounts. The Union Government had opposed the plea, citing concerns arising from the account's activities. Allowing the petition, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma held that the primary concern relied upon by the Centre had ceased to exist after completion of the NEET examination and accordingly directed that the Cockroach Janta Party's X account be unblocked. (ANI)
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