The Delhi High Court ordered the immediate restoration of the banned parody account “Dr. Nimmo Yadav”, run by petitioner Prateek Sharma on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), LiveLaw I mentioned.
The court also passed a similar order on the parody account Nehr Who, run by Kumar Nayan. Justice Puruchindra Kumar Kaurav passed the order while hearing the petition filed by Sharma and Nayan. Track updates on the war between Iran and the United States
However, Kaurav added that some posts marked as objectionable by the Center will remain banned for now.
Sharma has reportedly been directed to appear before the review committee to examine whether the ban on such posts will continue.
What did the court say?
“The alleged objectionable tweets mentioned in the blocking order are placed under the category of temporary blocking. The petitioner’s account is restored. The Government of India is at liberty to monitor the material and if further objectionable material is published, it is at liberty to take legal recourse in accordance with law,” the court said.
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Dr Nimo Yadav and Nahar are among 12 X accounts banned under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeiTY) directives on March 19.
When Sharma challenged the blocking of his satirical account, he requested a blocking order from the government, and the government said that the account had been blocked after the government found that it was “spreading false narratives relating to the Prime Minister” and “portraying him as being in bad taste.”
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The government, in its order, reportedly termed the posts on Dr Nimo Yadav’s account as “defamatory”, and that the posts, photos, videos and AI-manipulated content were used to create controversial posts questioning the government and defaming PM Modi. The order further stated that spreading such false information could affect public order and constitute “threats to internal security.”
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“Livelihoods affected”
Sharma said that his X account was a source of livelihood and that the continued blocking of his X account resulted in loss of income and disruption of professional engagements. His lawyer also said that if they were informed of the offensive content, they would take the necessary steps. Sharma was represented by lawyer Vrinda Grover who claimed that he did not obtain the government’s March 18 order blocking his account.
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“The legal scheme cannot be to violate my rights to avoid judicial scrutiny. The blocking order is completely illegal, an arbitrary order with effect from March 19 today, April 6. I want to reopen my account. They have identified 10 tweets. This is not within the scope of Section 69A. If these are the offending tweets, I will delete these specific tweets and get my account back,” Grover said in court.
