The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to order the immediate unblocking of satirical digital outfit Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) X account but issued notices to the Union government and social media platform X on a plea filed by the party’s founder Abhijeet Dipke against the blocking of the handle in India.
Hearing the matter, Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav directed a review committee under the IT Rules to examine the issue and take a decision before July 7. The court also allowed Dipke to appear virtually before the panel and observed that if the committee found merit in the plea, it had the authority to order the restoration of the account.
“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.
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The matter came up after Dipke challenged the legality of the action taken against the satirical digital outfit’s account. The petition questioned the basis on which the account was withheld and sought judicial intervention in the matter.
Senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for Dipke, argued that the CJP account was “pure satire” and said if there were objectionable posts, only those specific tweets should have been blocked instead of withholding the entire account.
Sibal also sought interim relief and urged the court to examine the blocking order, which he said had not yet been provided to the petitioner.
Justice Kaurav, however, observed that the blocking order was not yet on record and said the court would consider the request after the Centre filed its response.
“We will consider. This entire law (on blocking) is still at a nascent stage. Let us not precipitate things today,” the judge said during the hearing.
The court also orally observed that the present case appeared different from earlier cases where courts had directed authorities to withhold only individual offending posts instead of entire accounts.
“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 orally said.
Dipke, who was earlier associated with the Aam Aadmi Party, launched the Cockroach Janta Party earlier this month amid controversy over remarks attributed to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant during a Supreme Court hearing on May 15. During the hearing, remarks referring to “cockroaches” and “parasites” triggered backlash online, especially among young social media users.
On May 16, the CJI issued a clarification saying he was “pained” by reports suggesting he had criticised the youth. He said his remarks were specifically directed at individuals entering the legal profession through “fake and bogus degrees” and had been misquoted.
The original X handle of the Cockroach Janta Party was withheld in India on May 21. Following the block, the group created a new handle named “Cockroach is Back”, which now has more than 2,27,000 followers.
The movement has used satire, memes and digital campaigns to highlight issues such as youth unemployment, rising living costs and alleged failures in the education system. Supporters have described the “cockroach” identity as a form of protest and digital resistance.
Launched on May 16, the CJP claims it aims to build an independent youth-driven movement focused on amplifying concerns around jobs, education and governance.
The group recently launched a campaign demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged systemic failures in the education sector and the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak controversy.
In his petition, Dipke alleged that the action against the account was taken on grounds linked to national security. The plea has raised questions around online censorship, free speech and the powers used to block social media accounts in India.
Dipke recently alleged that the party’s Instagram account had also been hacked and that its website had been blocked as well.
