New Delhi: The Supreme Court was apprised on Tuesday that the Union government has withdrawn its directive to block the YouTube channel 4PM News Network.

A bench of Justices B. R. Gavai and A. G. Masih were hearing a plea filed by journalist Sanjay Sharma challenging the Centre’s directive to block his news channel on YouTube on the grounds of “national security” and “public order”.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on the petitioner’s behalf, submitted that since the blocking order has been withdrawn by the authorities, the prayer for interim relief has turned infructuous.

However, Sibal pressed the prayer contained in the petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Information Technology (IT) Blocking Rules, 2009. In view of the submission, the Apex Court ordered tagging the instant petition with the pending batch of pleas raising similar issues. Last week, the Justice Gavai-led Bench issued notice on the plea filed by the editor of the digital news platform and sought responses from the Union government, including the Ministry of Home Affairs, and YouTube.

When a prayer for interim relief was pressed, the Top Court had said that it was not inclined to pass any stay order without hearing from the government.

In his writ petition filed before the Apex Court, journalist Sanjay Sharma said that non-furnishing of the blocking order or underlying complaint violated statutory and constitutional safeguards.