The Kerala High Court has directed the restoration of a man's Facebook account after observing that authorities cannot block an entire social media account merely because some posts are considered objectionable. The Court passed the interim order while hearing a writ petition filed by N. Madhavan Kutty, whose account had allegedly been blocked following instructions from the Kerala Police.
Background of the Case
Petitioner N. Madhavan Kutty approached the High Court challenging the blocking of his Facebook account, claiming that access to his profile had been disabled. During the hearing, the State informed the Court that the blocking action was taken following instructions issued by the Kerala Police based on certain content uploaded by the petitioner.
Court's Observation
Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. examined the material placed before the Court and clarified that authorities are free to seek removal of online content that threatens the security of the State or public interest. However, the Court noted that the documents indicated objections only to certain posts and not to the petitioner's entire account.
The bench observed,
“If there is any objectionable content that affects the security of the State or against the public interest, nothing would preclude the respondent to issue instruction to block such content.”
It further held that, on the available material, the respondents had prima facie exceeded their powers by blocking the entire account instead of acting against the specific content.
The Court also recorded Meta's submission that the account had remained blocked since November 2025 and that records are ordinarily retained for six months under the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The petitioner, however, stated that the account continued to be accessible outside India, meaning the data was likely still available a position that was not disputed by the State.
Court's Decision
As an interim measure, the High Court directed that N. Madhavan Kutty's Facebook account be restored immediately. At the same time, it ordered that any objectionable posts identified by the competent police authority, along with their URLs, should be communicated to Meta so that only those specific posts are removed or access to them is disabled.
The Court made it clear that such action should not affect the continued operation of the petitioner's Facebook account, subject to further orders in the writ petition.
Case Details
Case Title: N. Madhavan Kutty v. Union of India & Others
Case Number: WP(C) No. 21126 of 2026
Judge: Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A.
Decision Date: 31 July 2026
