The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the Central government's stand on a plea filed by the operator of the X account Nehr_Who? against the alleged repeated blocking of the handle.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma asked the counsel appearing for the government to obtain instructions in the matter and said that the case will be heard on September 16.
Advocate Apar Gupta appeared for the petitioner and stated that this was the second time the account had been blocked.
"I had been protected earlier by the order of this Court, after which a fresh notice has been issued to me concerning certain tweets and pursuant thereto, the entire account has been blocked," Gupta stated.
The blocking order was furnished before the Court. The Court examined it and asked government counsel why the order could not be shared with the account holder.
"Ther contents are not such that you can’t give it to him [account holder]... Everything is in public domain," Justice Sharma remarked.
Gupta stated that there is an order of the Delhi High Court where the copy of the blocking order had been directed to be supplied to the account holder.
However, the government counsel maintained that the order are confidential in nature and he will take instructions in the matter. He said that there are certain reasons why the account has been blocked.
The Court asked the counsel to obtain instructions in the matter and listed the case for hearing on September 16.
The High Court was hearing the plea filed by operator of the Nehr_Who? account challenging the government's order issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. He stated that this is the second time in the last 4 months that the account has been blocked.
According to the petitioner, he has been running the account since October 2016 and had roughly 2.5 lakh followers when he was first informed on March 19, 2026 that his account had been blocked by the MEITY.
He stated that the High Court passed an order on April 6, directing the government identify the objectionable tweets and share the blocking order. After this, the account was restored on April 8, though the order itself was never furnished, prompting a still-pending contempt case.
On July 27, 2026, the account was blocked again, this time on directions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB). The petition states that the operator of the account was never given the blocking order, and that during an Inter-Departmental Committee hearing on August 7, he was questioned about his political commentary and geopolitical views, and told he was "masquerading as an Indian citizen."
The petition argues the repeated action bypasses safeguards under the Blocking Rules, 2009, and violates his rights Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. Therefore, the petitioner has sought restoration of the account and production of the blocking order before the Court.
The writ petition has been filed through advocate Naman Kumar.