Supreme Court protects Ranveer Allahbadia from arrest, admonishes him for distasteful comments on YouTube show

SC slams Ranveer Allahbadia: ‘Something very dirty in his mind’

The Supreme Court on Tuesday protected influencer Ranveer Allahbadia from arrest over his distasteful comments during a YouTube show while severely castigating him for the remarks it described as “showing a perverted mind”. Several FIRs have been filed against Allahbadia, popularly known as BeerBiceps, for the comment on parents and sex on comedian Samay Raina’s YouTube show “India’s Got Latent“. A furious court at the outset berated Allahbadia for his “unacceptable comments” on the show and said, “… There is something dirty in his mind which has been vomited on the YouTube show.”

“The words you have used will make daughters, sisters, parents, and even society feel ashamed. It shows a perverted mind. If this is not obscenity, what is it? Why should we quash or club the FIRs against you?” asked Justice Surya Kant, who was on the bench along with Justice N Kotiswar Singh.

However, the bench agreed to the submissions of senior advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, representing the influencer, that Allahbadia be protected from arrest keeping in mind the filing of multiple FIRs on the same issue as well as the death threats against him.

For the past three years, Ranveer Allahabadia has been in the limelight after many VIPs including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many Cabinet Ministers were giving him an audience and attending his shows. The Government of India has honoured him also by giving him an award from the Prime Minister.

“Are you defending the kind of language he has used?” Justice Surya Kant asked Chandrachud, who conceded that he himself was “disgusted“. The senior lawyer, however, said the question was whether the remarks constituted a criminal offence as profanity per se would not amount to obscenity. “If you can try to attain cheap publicity by saying these kinds of things, there might be others also who might want to get cheap publicity by making threats,” the bench said.

The bench directed that no further FIRs shall be lodged against him for his comments during the YouTube show, “India’s Got Latent”. The top court also restrained Allahbadia and his associate influencers on the controversial YouTube show from airing any other episode till further orders. It directed Allahbadia to deposit his passport at the Thane police station and said he shall not leave the country without the prior permission of the court.

The bench directed Allahbadia to cooperate in the probe of the FIRs lodged at Maharashtra and Assam.

Chandrachud referred to Allahbadia’s right to life and said he could not be prosecuted in several places for the same act. “What are the values of society? What are these parameters, do you even know? Society has some self-evolved values. You need to respect them…In the name of freedom of speech, no one has a licence to speak whatever they want against the norms of the society,” the bench observed.

Besides granting him protection from any coercive action in FIRs lodged in Mumbai and Guwahati, the bench also sought responses from the Centre, Maharashtra, and Assam governments on Allahbadia’s plea seeking clubbing and quashing of multiple FIRs against him. An Assam police team was in Pune to issue a summons to Raina in connection with a case filed in the northeastern state over his now-deleted YouTube show. Raina has a house in Balewadi in Pune.

On Monday, a case was registered in Guwahati by a resident for alleged promotion of obscenity in a publicly accessible online show. Besides Allahbadia and Samay Raina, others named in the case in Assam are Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh, and Apoorva Makhija.

Earlier, Allahabadia was asked to remain present at Mumbai’s Khar police station by the Mumbai police. The YouTuber is also facing a police complaint in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The Maharashtra Cyber Department has registered the case under relevant sections of the IT Act and sought the removal of all 18 episodes of the comedy show.

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