New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday permitted popular YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia to resume airing his podcast on the condition that he will maintain the “standards of decency and morality”.
Allahbadia and several other YouTubers, including Ashish Chanchlani and Apoorva Mukhija, have been embroiled in the controversy for vulgar and crass comments made during an episode of Samay Raina’s ‘India’s Got Latent’ show.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh relaxed an earlier condition which had prohibited Allahbadia or his associates from airing any show on YouTube or any other audio/video visual mode of communication till further orders.
During the hearing, the Justice Kant-led Bench asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the second highest law officer of the Centre, to consider regulating the content in online media.
“We don’t want any regulatory regime which leads to censorship, but it can’t be a free for all,” it said.
The apex court clarified that Allahbadia’s shows should not comment upon the proceedings which are sub-judice.
Earlier, February 18, the top court had stayed Allahbadia’s arrest subject to the condition that he would join the investigation, as and when summoned by the Investigating Officers.
“The interim protection against arrest is granted further subject to the condition that the petitioner will extend full cooperation to the ongoing investigation,” it had ordered.
The Supreme Court had added that no further FIR would be registered against Allahbadia on the basis of the episode aired on the show ‘India’s Got Latent’, for which two-three FIRs have already been registered.
Amid the controversy, Samay Raina had removed all videos of the show from YouTube, asserting that his intention was only to entertain and make people laugh.
Several complaints seeking legal action have been filed against popular YouTubers Samay Raina, Ranveer Allahabadia, Ashish Chanchlani, and Apoorva Mukhija over allegedly obscene and offensive remarks about parents in the comedy show ‘India’s Got Latent’.
As the legal proceedings unfold, the incident has sparked a broader debate about the limits of comedy and the responsibility of content creators on digital platforms.
