The Delhi High Court has ordered immediately restore the blocked parody account “Dr. Nimo Yadav”, which is operated by petitioner Prateek Sharma on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), LiveLaw reported.
The court also passed a similar order for parody account Nehr Who, which is operated by Kumar Nayan. Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav passed the order while hearing a plea filed by Sharma and Nayan. Track updates on Iran-US war
However, Kaurav added that certain posts flagged as objectionable by the Centre will remain blocked for now.
Sharma has reportedly been directed to appear before a Review Committee to examine whether these posts will continue being blocked.
What the court said
"The alleged objectionable tweets stated in the blocking order be put under temporary blocking category. The petitioner’s account be restored. The Government of India is at liberty to monitor material and if further objectionable material is posted, it is at liberty to take recourse as per law," the Court said, Bar and Bench reported.
Dr. Nimo Yadav and Nehr Who are among 12 X accounts that were blocked under the directives of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) on March19.
As Sharma challenged the blocking of his parody account, he asked for the government's blocking order to which the government said the account was blocked after the government found that it was “spreading false narratives involving the Prime Minister” and “portraying him in bad taste."
The government, in its order, reportedly termed posts on Dr Nimo Yadav account as “defamatory” and that posts, photographs, videos and AI-manipulated content were used to create controversial posts questioning the government and defaming PM Modi. The order further said that spreading such false information could impact public order and poses ‘internal security threats’.
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‘Livelihood impacted’
Sharma said that his X account served as a source of livelihood and that the continued blocking of his X account resulted in income loss and disruption of professional engagements. His counsel further said that had they been they informed about the offending content, they would take necessary steps. Sharma was represented by Advocate Vrinda Grover who alleged that he was not given the government order of March 18 to block his account.
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"The legal scheme cannot be that you violate my rights to avoid judicial scrutiny. The blocking order is totally illegal, arbitrary order from 19th March today, being 6th of April. I want my account to be reopened. They have delineated 10 tweets. This is not within domain of Section 69A. If these are the offending tweets, I would delete these particular tweets and restore my account," Grover said in the court, Bar and Bench reported.