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Why a 20-year-old Honey Singh–Badshah song is facing a takedown order now: 'Court's conscience is shocked'
A Delhi high court bench hearing a petition filed by Hindu Shakti Dal, made strong observations on the nature of and lyrics of the song Volume 1.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered the immediate removal of the nearly two-decade-old song Volume 1, associated with singer Honey Singh and Badshah, from all online platforms.
The track, released around 2006–07 under their collaboration Mafia Mundeer, has come under judicial scrutiny, with the court directing all links hosting the song be taken down without delay, calling it “derogatory towards women.”
What the court order said
A bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, hearing a petition filed by Hindu Shakti Dal, made strong observations on the nature of the song’s lyrics. “This is one of the rare cases where the conscience of the court is shocked to its absolute core," the court said while announcing the removal.
"It is one of those unfortunate instances where the court finds that the song is grossly vulgar, patently obscene, and derogatory towards women, artistic values, and social norms. The lyrics are not merely disrespectful or offensive but are ex facie calculated to normalise the treatment of women as objects of ridicule and sexual gratification,” the justices observed.
The bench further noted that such content cannot be protected under free speech if it is freely accessible online.
“No civilised society can permit such content to remain freely available or be monetised… [Honey Singh] and [Badshah] and any other persons claiming rights in the impugned obscene song(s) are directed to immediately take down the URLs hosting such content from social media platforms or any other online locations,” the order added.
The court also recorded that it had listened to the song in chambers earlier in the day and found its title too objectionable to be reproduced in the order.
What the petitioner’s counsel argued
In its plea, Hindu Shakti Dal had said that the song had been uploaded multiple times on YouTube under different accounts, attracting millions of views over the years.
The petition also claimed that both artists had earlier denied performing the track but portions of it were sung during a concert in Delhi on March 14.
Advocate Rupali Panwar, counsel for the petitioner, was talking to reporters when she said: “This song has been sung by Honey Singh and Badshah, though they have been claiming that they have not sung the song. But at a very recent concert last year, Honey Singh sang two lines of the alleged song against which we are here today. That is why the High Court has issued notice to Honey Singh and Badshah,” reported news agency ANI.
She went on to demand an apology from the singers, saying, “They should apologise because they have quite a lot of fan following. They are not setting the right example.”
The court has issued notice to both singers and scheduled the next hearing for May 7.
During the proceedings, counsel for Google informed the court that the URLs identified in the petition had already been removed.
