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Supreme Court grants relief from arrest to Ranveer Allahbadia, with conditions. What are those?
Supreme Court on Tuesday granted Ranveer Allahbadia interim protection from arrest in FIRs in Assam, Maharashtra over his ‘India’s Got Latent' remark.
YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, who stands surrounded by a raging controversy over his remark at India's Got Latent YouTube show, found some respite after the Supreme Court on Tuesday granted him interim protection from arrest in FIRs in Assam, Maharashtra.
The top court further directed no further FIR will be registered against Ranveer Allahbadia over the remarks made on the episode aired on the show "India's Got Latent."
The Supreme Court also granted Allahbadia liberty to approach local police in Maharashtra and Assam for protection of his life and liberty in the event of any threat, to enable him to join the investigation.
The top court’s order on Ranveer Allahbadia on Tuesday, however, was not a clean slate for him. While the court granted him temporary relief, it imposed some significant conditions that would shape the way he moves forward in the case.
What are the conditions imposed by the Supreme Court on Ranveer Allahbadia:
- The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Ranveer Allahbadia to deposit his passport with the investigating officer of police station Nodal Cyber Police, Thane.
- The top court directed that Allahbadia is not allowed to leave the country or travel overseas without permission till the investigation continues.
- The Supreme Court restrained Ranveer Allahbadia and his associates from airing any show on YouTube or any other audio/video visual mode of communication till further orders.
Supreme Court raps Ranveer Allahbadia
The Supreme Court strongly condemned Ranveer Allahbadia's comments calling it "vulgar" and putting society to shame.
A bench of Justice Kant and N Kotiswar Singh told senior advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, who was representing Allahbadia, "The words you have chosen, the parents will feel ashamed, daughters and sisters will feel ashamed, your younger brother will feel ashamed, the entire society will feel ashamed."
The bench further asked, "We would like to know, in this country if this is not obscenity then what is the standard of obscenity?"
Personally disgusted: Allahbadia's lawyers told SC
Ranveer Allahbadia's lawyer, Chandrachud said personally he was disgusted by the petitioner's utterances but asked if it attracted criminal prosecution.
Chandrachud referred to a top court ruling and said it was held that anything that gave rise to disgust or revulsion would not amount to obscenity, and profanity would also not amount to obscenity.
If something gives rise to lustful thoughts or sexual thoughts in the mind of a reasonable person, that would be obscenity, he said.
