The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a petition seeking a multi-agency probe against Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and the extradition of its founder Abhijeet Dipke from United States of America to India..A Bench of Justice Shekhar B Saraf and Justice Abdesh Kumar Chaudhary said the petitioner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker S Vignesh Shishir, who hails from Karnataka, should have approached the High Court there."Upon perusal of the writ petition, the first thing that strikes us is that the petitioner is a permanent resident of Bengaluru. In the cause title as well as in the affidavit, the petitioner shows his address as .. Bengaluru-560020. In our view, the petitioner, being a resident of Bengaluru and raising an issue that is of national importance, should have first approached the Karnataka High Court, if he so desired," the Bench said.The Court also said that facts of the case did not pertain to Uttar Pradesh."In the present writ petition, we do not find anything specific to the State of Uttar Pradesh, and accordingly, we are of the view that the writ petition is not maintainable before this Court due to forum non conveniens.".The Court noted that on earlier occasions, Shishir has categorically stated that he is a resident of Bengaluru and sought "preference and indulgence from this Court on the ground that he comes from Bengaluru."Following Court's observations, Shishir sought permission to withdraw the plea. The Court then passed the following order,"In light of the same, the writ petition is disposed of with the aforesaid liberty of filing a fresh criminal public interest writ petition before a Court having competent jurisdiction.".The Cockroach Janta Party emerged last month as a satirical movement among young users across social media platforms. The Union government, however, has made X Corp take down its Twitter account citing security concerns.Shishir sought directions for the blocking of all social media handles of the CJP and Dipke across different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal.His plea also sought the removal of posts, videos, reels and other content originating from or associated with Dipke and CJP that misuse, distort, or misrepresent observations of the Supreme Court..The CJP movement was born out of the Supreme Court proceedings held on May 15 during which CJI Surya Kant expressed concerns over unemployed youth drifting away toward social media and RTI activism. CJI Kant, in his oral comments, said that such youngsters "like cockroaches" were becoming parasites in society. CJI Kant later clarified that he was referring to those with fake degrees who engage in such activities. In his petition before the High Court, Shishir urged the Court to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) comprising senior officers of intelligence and investigative agencies under the supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs to probe the alleged “foreign-funded information warfare campaign” orchestrated by the CJP and its founder Dipke..The PIL sought registration of criminal cases against Dipke and others by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).The plea also sought the issuance of a Look-Out Circular against Dipke and the initiation of extradition proceedings against him to ensure his return to India from the United States..Allahabad High Court asks CBI, ED to examine complaint alleging Rahul Gandhi has disproportionate assets.Shishir had earlier filed petitions before the Allahabad High Court questioning Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's citizenship.He had also filed a petition alleging Rahul Gandhi possesses disproportionate assets allegedly beyond his known sources of income..Deputy Solicitor General SB Pandey, with Advocates Raj Kumar Singh and Anand Dwivedi represented Union of India.Chief Standing Counsel Deepshikha with Additional Chief Standing Counsel Pankaj Khare and Isha Mittal appeared for State of UP. Advocates Shikha Singh and Kuldeep Srivastava represented other respondents..[Read Order]
