The Delhi High Court has directed the Central Government’s Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) to decide an appeal filed by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) against the permanent disabling of its official Delhi Instagram account. Justice Amit Mahajan, while hearing the matter on September 24, 2026, said the appeal was expected to be decided within three weeks.
The Court was dealing with SFI’s plea alleging that its appeal before the GAC had remained pending beyond the timeline contemplated under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Background
According to SFI’s plea, Instagram permanently disabled its account, @SfiDelhi, on July 5, 2026. The platform informed the organisation that the account “may be associated with another account that has gone against our rules” and referred to its Community Standards on Account Integrity. SFI alleged that Instagram did not identify the other account or provide details of the alleged violation.
The account had been created in 2018 and, according to the petition, had around 13,000 followers. SFI said it used the account to communicate information concerning its Delhi activities, campaigns and student-related issues.
SFI initially challenged the disabling before Instagram on July 7. After that appeal was rejected, it approached Meta’s grievance officer on July 9. The organisation then filed an appeal before the GAC on August 12 after, according to its plea, receiving no substantive resolution.
SFI contended that the GAC appeal continued to be shown as “under process” even after more than 30 days had passed. It relied on Rule 3A(4) of the 2021 IT Rules, which requires the GAC to deal with appeals expeditiously and endeavour to resolve them finally within 30 calendar days.
The petition also raised concerns concerning the effect of the account disabling on the organisation’s ability to communicate through the platform and alleged that the account was disabled without adequate particulars concerning the alleged breach.
During the hearing, SFI was represented by Advocate Apar Gupta. Counsel appearing for the Centre stated that the appellate authority would be advised to dispose of the appeal expeditiously, within four weeks.
Justice Amit Mahajan, however, expressed the expectation that the appeal would be decided within three weeks. The Court accordingly disposed of SFI’s plea with a direction for the GAC to take up and decide the pending appeal.
The Delhi High Court disposed of the petition after directing the Central Government’s Grievance Appellate Committee to decide SFI’s pending appeal concerning the disabling of its Instagram account.
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