On January 23, a Delhi High Court single-judge panel chaired by Justice Prathiba M Singh gave notice to the Central government in response to a petition filed by the proprietor of the parody website "Dowry Calculator" against the government's decision to block it. 

The court set the case for hearing on May 15 and ordered both the petitioner and the government to submit written arguments. 

The committee had advised the Ministry to keep its decision to restrict the "Dowry Calculator," according to a correspondence from MEITY to Thakur sent in June of last year, the court was informed.

The Court was informed that MeitY had also approved this suggestion, and the website is still prohibited today. 

Senior Attorney Siddharth Aggarwal, who represented Thakur, told the Bench that although the website was designed to poke fun of a social vice, the government believes that it will harm India's reputation abroad.

“This is a free website, zero revenue… It shines a mirror… It seems they (government) are saying that dowry will go away if we stop hearing the word,” Aggarwal stated.

The matter was scheduled for further hearing in May by the Bench since the Union of India's legal representative was not present in court. 

In 2011, a man named Tanul Thakur built the website. On the basis of a complaint by Maneka Gandhi, the former Union Minister for Women and Child Development, the government chose to stop it in July 2018. 

The committee established by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) was instructed by the High Court to hold a post-decision hearing for Thakur over the blocking order.

Case Title: Tanul Thakur v. Union of India