The Delhi High Court has directed Meta’s Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) to decide the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) appeal against the disabling of its Instagram account @sfidelhi within three weeks. The order was issued on September 24, 2026, after the appeal had been pending since August 12. The account had around 13,000 followers before it was suspended on July 5, 2026, according to medianama.com.
Instagram suspended the @sfidelhi account citing association with another account that violated its rules, without specifying the alleged violation. SFI appealed the suspension on the same day, but Instagram rejected the appeal on July 7 and permanently disabled the account. The petitioners then filed a complaint to Meta’s Grievance Officer on July 9, which was acknowledged but only met with generic responses. The appeal was submitted to the GAC on August 12 but remained under process for over a month, violating the Information Technology Rules, 2021, amended in February 2026, which require grievance officers to resolve complaints within seven days, medianama.com reported.
This case highlights ongoing challenges in social media grievance redressal mechanisms in India, especially under the amended IT Rules that mandate timely resolution of complaints. The SFI’s case underscores concerns about transparency and accountability in content moderation by platforms like Meta. The Delhi High Court’s intervention marks a significant judicial push to enforce compliance with these rules, which aim to protect user rights and ensure procedural fairness in takedown actions, medianama.com noted.
The court’s directive sets a three-week deadline for the GAC to decide on the SFI appeal, emphasizing adherence to the IT Rules’ timelines. The next key date is the deadline for the GAC decision, which will test Meta’s compliance with Indian regulations on grievance redressal and content moderation transparency, according to medianama.com.