Delhi High Court seeks response from MEITY, Google on plea against blocking of YouTube channel 4PM news

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and Google on a plea filed by the 4 PM news platform against the blocking of its YouTube channel. 

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav issued notice in the matter today and sought the responses of the government and the search engine.

The petition was filed by YouTube channel 4PM News and its editor-in-chief Sanjay Sharma. The petitioners claimed that their channel had over 8.4 million subscribers on YouTube and was ranked top for the past three years. 

They said that their channel and 26 of its videos were blocked in March 2026 and that Google took the action following a legal request by the government. Neither Google nor MEITY provided them with any formal order or reasons, the petitioners add.

According to the plea, the blocking was carried out without notice and requests for relevant documents were denied on grounds of “confidentiality.”

The Court was also told that a hearing before an Inter-Departmental Committee was scheduled with less than 24 hours’ notice, without clarity on whether it concerned the entire channel or specific videos. 

The petitioners argued that even during the eventual hearing, undisclosed material was relied upon, denying them a fair opportunity to respond.

The petition claimed that the process violated principles of natural justice and constitutional protections under Article 19(1)(a), which guarantees freedom of speech and expression. It argued that a YouTube channel cannot be treated as “information” under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and therefore cannot be blocked in its entirety. Any restriction, it contends, must be limited to specific offending content.

The plea also stated that the use of emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules, 2021 is “gross abuse of process,” particularly since some blocked videos date back to April 2025.