Chennai: The Madras High Court has issued notice to the Centre and Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) co-coordinator Saurav Das on a petition seeking an inquiry into his citizenship and identity, along with directions to block his social media accounts over alleged defamatory remarks against Supreme Court judges and the judiciary, news agency ANI reported on Friday, October 30.

Source: ANI via Latestly

A division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan issued notice to the respondents, including the Regional Passport Officer, Chennai, the Chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Union Home Ministry, the Foreign Secretary, and the Secretaries of the Ministries of Law and Justice and of Electronics and Information Technology, as well as the grievance officers of X and Instagram. The notice is returnable in six weeks, Live Law reported.

Source: Live Law

The petition was filed by Ganesh Kumar, a businessman from Kanchipuram district. He has sought a detailed inquiry into Das's background and antecedents, and has asked that Das's passport and Aadhaar be cancelled if the inquiry establishes he is not entitled to hold them. These are the petitioner's allegations and requests — reported here as allegations, not as established facts.

Source: Bar and Bench

What is solid

  • The Madras High Court issued notice on October 30 to the Centre, Saurav Das and other respondents, returnable in six weeks.
  • The bench was Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan; the petitioner is Ganesh Kumar of Kanchipuram district.

What is only claimed

  • The petitioner's allegations about Das's nationality, identity and documents — the court has made no finding on them and responses are still awaited.
  • The plea's request to block Das's X and Instagram accounts over alleged derogatory remarks against the judiciary — a request, not a court order.
Notice is not a finding

Issuing notice only means the court wants the other side's reply before deciding anything further. Das and the Union authorities have not yet filed their responses, and the court has expressed no view on the merits of the petition.

ANI noted that Das and Ashutosh Ranka were earlier detained in connection with an October 13 protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, which had been denotified as a designated protest site. The CJP has been at the centre of youth-led protests this year, and this petition now puts a separate legal question — over one of its best-known faces — before the Madras High Court, with replies due in six weeks.