Delhi High Court orders restoration of Cockroach Janta Party X account

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed that the X account of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) be restored after the Union government told the court it no longer objected to the account being unblocked in India.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma passed the order while hearing a petition filed by CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke challenging the government’s earlier decision to withhold the account in the country.

Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta told the court that the account had been blocked as a precautionary step ahead of the 21 June NEET re-test. He said some of the posts carried the potential to create confusion and panic among lakhs of candidates and their parents.

With the examination now over, the government said its original concern no longer survived and that it had no objection to the account being restored.

Recording the submission, the court said the primary issue cited by the government had ceased to exist after the conclusion of the examination and accordingly revoked the blocking order, allowing the petition.

During earlier hearings, senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Dipke, had argued that the content posted by the CJP was satirical in nature. He contended that if the authorities had concerns about specific posts, they ought to have acted only against those individual posts rather than blocking the entire account.

The Cockroach Janta Party emerged on social media in May as a satirical online movement amid controversy over remarks attributed to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. After its original X account was withheld in India on 21 May, the group launched a new handle, “Cockroach is Back”, which has since drawn more than 2.82 lakh followers.