New Delhi: Noting that author-journalist Rana Ayyub’s posts on X (formerly Twitter) relating to Hindu deities and the Indian Army were “highly derogatory, inflammatory and communal”, the Delhi High Court Wednesday ordered removal and takedown of the same.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, issuing notices on a plea filed on 30 March by Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Amita Sachdeva, impleaded Delhi Police as a party to the case, asking them and X to take necessary action against six tweets posted by Ayyub between 2013 and 2017.
Notices have been issued to the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), its Grievance Appellate Committee constituted under Rule 3A of IT Rules, 2021, X and Ayyub. The matter will be taken up next on Friday.
“Let the respondents take instructions and do the needful… the action is necessary in view of the highly derogatory, inflammatory and communal tweets posted by Respondent Number 4 (Rana Ayyub) pursuant to which an FIR has been registered on the orders of a competent court. The matter requires urgent consideration. The official who represents Delhi Police is also directed to transmit necessary directions to Respondent Number 3 (X Corp). Let Delhi Police also be impleaded as a party,” the court ordered.
Sachdeva, whose X bio states “will pursue legal action against anyone who insults Sanatan Dharma,” had filed a plea in the high court seeking “immediate removal” of Ayyub’s posts.
Delhi’s Saket court in January 2025 had ordered an FIR against Ayyub on Sachdeva’s plea and held that the content was “prima facie” disclosing cognisable offences under Sections 153A, 295A and 505 of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code, covering promotion of enmity between groups on grounds of religion, deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings and causing public mischief and enmity.
According to her plea, Sachdeva had approached X Corp’s Grievance Appellate Committee—going by the statute—which declined to grant relief saying the matter was “sub judice”.
“Despite the complete exhaustion of remedies available under Rules 3(2) and 3A of the IT Rules, 2021, of the IT Intermediary Guidelines, the offending tweets continue to remain publicly accessible worldwide as on date. The continued availability of the impugned content is causing ongoing injury to religious sentiments, disturbing communal harmony, and rendering the judicial directions ineffective. The Petitioner is approaching this Hon’ble Court bona fide, solely in the interest of justice, for protection of public order, and for enforcement of her fundamental rights,” her plea read.
As was also stated in Sachdeva’s petition, all of the posts in question are live as of the day, though the Delhi Police had told the Saket court in May 2025 that the posts were no longer on X.
In May 2025 as well, the police had told the Saket court that details of Ayyub’s X account and the posts highlighted by Sachdeva were awaited, maintaining that the posts were not available on the platform then.
ThePrint reached Rana Ayyub for comment via email but had not received any response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
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The posts in question
In her detailed petition seeking removal of “offending content”, Sachdeva, “a devout follower of Sanatan Dharma” being “directly aggrieved”, referred to six posts made by Ayyub between 2013 and 2017.
A 2013 post stated: “Ravana didn’t touch Sita even though he could. Ram didn’t stand for Sita even though he should have. Ravana 1 Ram 0.”
An October 2014 post quoted poet Ali Sardar Jafri: “Gareeb Sita ke ghar pe kab tak rahegi Ravan ki hukmrani, Draupadi ka libas uske badan se kab tak chhina karega.”
A 2015 post said: “So Veer Savarkar advocated rape as necessary component of Hindutva nationalism.”
Another read: “Was reading Nathuram Godse’s account of Savarkar & wondering if we should continue to honour the terrorist sympathiser”.
Then, a 2016 post with the picture of a boy with an injured face said: “Dear Indian army, am guessing this young kid was quite a threat to the sovereignty of India to be blinded for life.”
A 2017 post by Ayyub read: “…Kashmiris have stopped expecting justice from the army or the Indian state. Sad but true.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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