NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on YouTuber and podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia for his inappropriate comments during his guest appearance on a show India’s Got Latent, and described it as “dirty and perverted”.
“If this is not obscenity, then what is obscenity?” asked a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh. Justice Kant, lambasting Allahabadia said, “Such behaviour has to be condemned. Just because you are popular, you cannot take society for granted. Is there anyone on earth who will like this language? There is something very dirty in his mind, which has been vomited by him in the programme. He is insulting parents also. Why should the courts favour him?”
“The words you (petitioner) have chosen, parents will feel ashamed. Daughters and sisters will feel ashamed. The entire society will be ashamed. These are the levels of depravity you and your henchmen have gone to. Rule of law and system has to be followed. He should be ashamed as to what he has done to his parents. We are not in ivory towers and we know from where he copied (the content)…”, the bench further said.
The bench, while hearing plea of Allahabadia seeking clubbing of FIRs registered against him in Mumbai, Guwahati and Jaipur, granted interim protection from arrest to him. It has issued notice to the police of states and sought their response on his plea. The bench also directed no further FIR shall be registered against him on the basis of the episode aired on the India’s Got Latent show.
It asked him to deposit his passport with police and he can’t leave country without permission of the court. The apex court said that the interim protection is subject to the condition of he joining the investigation and also gave him liberty to him approach the police for protection against threats. It also directed Allahabadia and his associates be “off from show business from sometime”.
During the hearing of the case, advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, who was representing Allahabadia, said the YouTuber was facing multiple FIRs and he has been receiving death threats. To this, Justice Kant replied, “If you can try to attain cheap publicity by saying these kind of things, there might be others also who might want to get cheap publicity by making threats”.
Justice Kant then asked Chandrachud, “Are you defending the kind of language?” The advocate said that he was too “disgusted” by the language used by Allahabadia, but said that the question was whether it constituted any criminal offence.
“If this is not obscenity, then what is obscenity? So what are the parameters of obscenity and vulgarity. In this society, which has some self-evolved values, and when we behave within those parameters, we want to know what are the parameters of Indian society according to the petitioner”, asked the bench.
The bench further said that a person cannot take advantage of his popularity to take the society for granted. Later, the top court asked the Centre if it wants to do something about obscene content on YouTube and other social media.
“These so-called YouTubers… We would like you (government) to do something, if government is willing to do something, we are happy, otherwise we are not going to leave this vacuum and barren area the way it is being misused by so-called YouTube channels and YouTubers…” Justice Kant told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati who was sitting in the court room in another matter.
The bench sought Attorney General and Solicitor General’s assistance in the matter. It said we should not overlook the importance and sensitivity of the issue.
Allahabadia has approached the apex court seeking to club multiple FIRs lodged against him across India over his recent inappropriate comments during his guest appearance on a show India’s Got Latent.
On February 11, the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Guwahati Police have registered an FIR against YouTubers and social influencers Allahabadia, Samay Raina, Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh, Apoorva Makhija, and others for promoting obscenity and engaging in sexually explicit and vulgar discussions on India’s Got Latent. FIRs have been registered against them in Mumbai and Guwahati. (ANI)