Delhi High Court permits restoration of X account blocked over posts defaming PM Modi

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has permitted the restoration of an X account suspended over the publication of allegedly defamatory content against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, however, directed X, formerly Twitter, to temporarily block the objectionable posts on its platform, subject to adjudication by the Centre's Inter-Ministerial Committee.

Parody Twitter account, @DrNimoYadav, of the petitioner, Prateek Sharma, was blocked as a result of a blocking order issued by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) on March 18 under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The petitioner's counsel said that without prejudice to his rights and contentions, the petitioner was willing to delete the allegedly objectionable tweets, and in turn, his X account could be restored.

The additional solicitor general said the central government has issued a communication to the petitioner granting him a hearing before the Inter-Ministerial Committee to review the issue.

"Accordingly, it is directed that the allegedly objectionable tweets as stated in the Blocking Order be temporarily blocked/suspended, subject to the adjudication to be undertaken by the Committee. Subject to the allegedly objectionable tweets being temporarily blocked/suspended by X, let the petitioner's X account be restored immediately," ordered Justice Kaurav on April 6.

The court asked the petitioner to respond to the Centre's communication and appear physically before the committee and, if necessary, make a request to be represented or accompanied by an authorised representative.

The committee shall consider all submissions made by the petitioner, including whether the allegedly objectionable tweets were permissible under the law, it added.

The court clarified that if the petitioner's grievance was not mitigated, he shall be at liberty to take appropriate recourse in accordance with the law.

The ministry shall also be at liberty to monitor the material posted on the petitioner's X account and take appropriate legal action in case of any objectionable content, it further said.

Twitter earlier informed the court that the Centre requested blocking the petitioner's account on the ground that it contained controversial posts that questioned the government and defamed the prime minister.

The Centre claimed in the blocking request that the account was spreading false narratives involving the prime minister and portrayed him in a bad taste, which was demeaning and may affect public order issues, leading to internal security threats to the State.

X, in its response to the blocking order, said it was withholding access to the account without prejudice to its contentions. X claimed that account-level blocking was disproportionate and did not constitute the "least intrusive measure" as mandated under law.