CHENNAI: Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered the Tamil Nadu government to unblock 18 X URLs and granted interim relief on a plea filed by P Chockalingam claims that the blocking restricted political criticism, satire, and democratic debate.
The vacation bench comprising Justices L Victoria Gowri and N Senthil Kumar granted an interim stay on the order. The bench also directed the Tamil Nadu government and the police to file their response to the plea and posted the matter to June 8.
P Chockalingam (55), President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, filed a plea before the Madras High Court. In the plea, he stated that the Tamil Nadu government had issued a notice on May 8 directing the blocking of multiple X URLs purportedly under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act.
The petitioner submitted that the direction requiring removal or blocking within an extremely short period of three hours appeared wholly disproportionate, particularly in the absence of any disclosed emergency, imminent threat of violence, or extraordinary circumstance affecting public order. The petitioner also sought a direction to the Cyber Crime Wing to quash the order.
During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel argued that blocking the 18 URLs curtailed lawful political criticism, satire and democratic discussion.