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

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

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

Dipke approached the Delhi High Court on Monday challenging the blocking of X’s “party” account. The writ petition was filed by advocate Nakul Gandhi of NG Law Chambers.

Read also | Cockroach Janata Party founder moves Delhi HC, challenges blocking of X account

The X Cockroach Janata Party’s handle was denied on 22 May, days after it was founded by 30-year-old Abhijit Dipke, after India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant compared unemployed youths who fell into activism and journalism to “cockroaches” and “parasites”.

According to Live Law, the Chief Justice of India on Monday told the petitioner not to take the “Cockroach Janata Party” issue so “sentimentally” when the lawyer verbally mentioned the petition regarding the issue for urgent listing.

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

Founded by Abhijeet Dipke, a resident of Boston, USA, the collective uses political satire to address issues such as unemployment, institutional accountability and media freedom.

The CJP – or Cockroach People’s Party – satirizes the name Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been in power since 2014.

The group calls itself “the voice of the lazy and unemployed”. The criteria for membership in the society are being chronically online and having “the ability to chat professionally”.

Read also | ‘Fear inherent in today’s politics’: parents of CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke

Why was CJP’s account suspended?

An Indian Express report quoted a senior government official as saying that the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) satirical site’s X handle was denied on the orders of the Modi-led Union government after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) raised “national security concerns”.

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

The official claimed that the impetus for this came from the IB as the central agency cited a threat to India’s sovereignty.

“IB believed that the account was posting seditious content through its account that could threaten the country’s national security,” an official told the newspaper on condition of anonymity because the government issues such blocking orders in a confidential framework.

Read also | Fraudsters sending phishing links on the pretext of joining CJP: Punjab Police

The official added that the impetus for this came from the IB as the central agency cited a threat to India’s sovereignty.

On May 23, the CJP website was also taken down. “Government has taken down our iconic website – 10 Lakh cockroaches have registered on our website has members. 6 Lakh cockroaches have signed a petition demanding Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation,” Dipke wrote on X.

Two days ago, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate alleged fake lawyers, fraudulent legal degrees and activities of people associated with the “Janta Cockroach Party”.

The petition also sought an action against the alleged commercialization and monetization of oral courtroom remarks made during recent proceedings before the Supreme Court, the Bar and Bench said.

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