Delhi HC to hear Cockroach Janata Party founder's petition against blocking of X account on May 29

The Delhi High Court will hear Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijit Dipke's petition challenging the Centre's order suspending the X account of satirical online 'party' on Friday, May 29.

The matter is listed before Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, Live Law reported.

Dipke moved the Delhi High Court on Monday, challenging the blocking of the X account of the “party”. The writ petition was through advocate Nakul Gandhi of NG Law Chambers.

Cockroach Janata Party's X handle was withheld on May 22, days after it was started by 30-year-old Abhijit Dipke, after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant compared unemployed youth who drift into activism and journalism to "cockroaches" and "parasites."

According to Live Law, the Chief Justice of India had told a petitioner on Monday not to take the 'Cockroach Janata Party' issue so "sentimentally", when the lawyer orally mentioned a petition concerning it for urgent listing.

The “Cockroach Janta Party” emerged earlier this month as a satirical online movement that gained traction across social media platforms, particularly among younger users.

The collective was started by Abhijeet Dipke, a resident of Boston, USA, and uses political satire to comment on issues such as unemployment, institutional accountability and media freedom.

The CJP - or the cockroach people's party - satirises the name of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been in power since 2014.

The group calls itself "the voice of the lazy and unemployed". Its tongue-in-cheek membership criteria include being chronically online and having "the ability to rant professionally".

According to the report, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked X to withhold the satirical account under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The official claimed that the input to do so came from IB, as the central agency cited a threat to India's sovereignty.

"The IB believed that the account was posting inflammatory content through its account, which could have jeopardised the country’s national security,” the official told the newspaper on condition of anonymity since the government issues such blocking orders under a confidential framework.

The official added that the input to do so came from IB, as the central agency cited a threat to India's sovereignty.

On May 23, the CJP website was also taken down. “The government has taken down our iconic website-http://cockroachjantaparty.org. 10 Lakh cockroaches had signed up on our website has members. 6 Lakh cockroaches had signed a petition to demand the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan,” Dipke wrote on X.

Two days ago, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into alleged fake advocates, fraudulent law degrees and the activities of persons associated with the “Cockroach Janta Party".

The petition also sought action against alleged commercial exploitation and monetised circulation of oral courtroom observations made during recent proceedings before the Supreme Court, Bar and Bench reported.

Notably, remarks attributed to CJI Surya Kant during the May 15 hearing were widely interpreted online as comparing unemployed youth to cockroaches.