Delhi HC closes SFI plea after Centre promises GAC ruling in a month

The Delhi High Court on Thursday disposed of a petition by the Students' Federation of India (SFI) challenging the disabling of its Instagram account, after the Centre said the outfit's pending appeal before the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) would be resolved within a month.

SFI moved the GAC on August 12, but the appeal has not yet been decided. Appearing before Justice Amit Mahajan, counsel for the Centre said the matter would be disposed of in four weeks. The court, taking that submission on record, closed the plea without issuing any further directions.

The GAC is the statutory appellate body under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules. The rules require it to handle appeals before it expeditiously and to endeavour to decide them finally within thirty calendar days of receipt.

SFI's Instagram account, set up in 2018 as the official handle of its Delhi unit, was permanently disabled by the platform on July 5 for what it described as a violation of its community guidelines. The account had 13,000 followers at the time. SFI has said the suspension cut it off from an established channel it used to publicise its activities, student-focused campaigns and concerns, and to engage with students and the wider public.

The Delhi High Court has received a number of petitions seeking directions to the GAC to decide appeals against the blocking or suspension of social media accounts. In most of them, the court has declined to order that the appeals be decided.

In May, however, it directed the GAC to decide a content creator's appeal expeditiously after the matter had remained pending for more than two months. Separately, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, in an order on July 28, directed that a social media user's appeal be considered and disposed of within four weeks; the user had approached the court after his appeal lay undecided with the GAC for over a month.