Supreme Court quashes Ghaziabad police notice to X seeking three months of a journalist's account data

14 October 2026

A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi quashed a notice issued by Ghaziabad police to the social media platform X seeking digital data from the account of journalist Abhishek Upadhyay. The notice sought data for about three months before the incident, including login and logout IP addresses, email ID, IMEI number and registration logs. Justice Bagchi said seizing data for three months before the incident 'seems to be an overkill'. The case is Abhishek Upadhyay v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others, W.P.(Crl.) No. 339/2026. The Court directed that information obtained through the notice or otherwise must not be used against Upadhyay, made his interim protection from coercive action absolute subject to his cooperation with the investigation, and ordered that his seized vehicle be released within two days. It left him free to challenge the First Information Report before the competent High Court. The underlying FIR was registered at Indirapuram Police Station, Ghaziabad.