Perverted mind: SC raps Allahbadia, stays arrest
In the eye of the storm over his comment about parents and sex during an episode of stand-up show ‘India’s Got Latent’, podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia got a major relief from the Supreme Court on Tuesday from arrest in multiple FIRs lodged against him.
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The SC said there was a legislative vacuum on the issue. “If the Centre doesn’t do anything, we will like to do something... we will not leave this vacuum… it’s being misused by so-called YouTube channels and all these things are going on,” the SC Bench said.
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A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh, however, pulled up Allahbadia for the irresponsible comments it described as “showing a perverted mind”.
Terming Allahbadia’s comment as a “height of lack of responsibility” and a “condemnable behaviour,” the Bench said, “Just because somebody thinks ‘I am popular, I can speak anything and take society for granted’…. You tell us anyone on the Earth would like these kinds of words to be told? You (Allahbadia) are insulting people, parents also. We don’t want to say, (but) there’s something very dirty in his mind that has been vomited by way of this programme.” Noting that there was a legislative vacuum on the issue, the Bench said it would like to do something if the Centre didn’t do anything.
“There was this case of YouTubers... the Centre is a party... we would like to do something. If the government will willingly do it, we will be very happy. Otherwise, we are not going to leave this vacuum… the way it is being misused by so-called YouTube channels and all these things are going on...,” Justice Kant said. While issuing notice to the Centre, it asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to convey it to Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist it on March 3, the next date of hearing. “We would like to do something. We may not overlook the importance and sensitivity of the issue”, the Bench said.
The top court protected Allahbadia from arrest in cases registered at Nodal Cyber Police, Thane, and Cyber Police Station, Guwahati, subject to the condition that he shall join investigation, as and when summoned by the investigating officers.
“The petitioner will not be accompanied by any counsel inside the police station during the course of investigation… he or his associates shall not air any show on YouTube or any other audio or video visual mode of communication till further orders,” the Bench ordered. “If any other FIR on the same set of allegations has been registered in Jaipur (Rajasthan), the arrest of the petitioner shall remain stayed in the said FIR also,” it said.
“No further FIR shall be registered against the petitioner on the basis of the episode aired on show “India’s Got Latent”, for which the above mentioned two/three FIRs have already been registered,” the Bench ordered. The top court asked him to deposit his passport with the investigating officer of the Nodal Cyber Police police station at Thane.
