CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday temporarily stayed the notice of the Cyber Crime Wing of Tamil Nadu Police to take down 18 X posts and block certain accounts which are critical of the TVK and its leader Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
The interim injunction, on the Cyber Crime Wing’s May 8, 2026, notice, was granted by a vacation bench of justices L Victoria Gowri and N Senthilkumar while hearing a petition filed by P Chokkalingam, a leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Directing the respondents to file a reply to the petition, the bench adjourned the hearing to June 8, 2026.
The petitioner stated that the Cyber Crime Wing had issued the notice to the X Corp to suspend 18 URLs of different users, including Maridhas (a right-wing YouTuber), under Section 79 (3) (b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, r/w Rule 3 (1) (d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
He noted the URLs belong to different users and a common direction without separately examining or analysing the contents of each individual post cannot be issued. The account holders were neither informed of the allegations nor afforded any meaningful opportunity to respond before issuance of the coercive removal/blocking directions.
He said the impugned notice is against the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution.
The petitioner had sought the court to stay and quash the impugned notice and direct the respondents to refrain from issuing such blanket or omnibus orders suspending/blocking/removing lawful political criticism, democratic discussion, satire, dissent or strong opinion against political or government actions on social media.
