India Supreme Court to YouTuber: If this is not obscenity, then what is obscenity?

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on YouTuber and podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia for his inappropriate comments during his guest appearance on a show India's Got Latent, and described it as "dirty and perverted."

"If this is not obscenity, then what is obscenity?," asked a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh.

Justice Kant lambasting Allahabadia said, "Such behaviour has to be condemned. Just because you are popular you cannot take the society for granted. Is there anyone on earth who will like this language. There is something very dirty in his mind, which has been vomited by him in the program. He is insulting parents also. Why should the courts favour him?"

"The words you (petitioner) have chosen, parents will feel ashamed. Daughters and sisters will feel ashamed. The entire society will be ashamed. These are the levels of depravity you and your henchmen have gone to. Rule of law and system has to be followed. He should be ashamed as to what he has done to his parents. We are not in ivory towers and we know from where he copied (the content)...," said the bench further.

The bench, while hearing the plea of Allahabadia seeking clubbing of FIRs registered against him in Mumbai, Guwahati and Jaipur, granted interim protection from arrest to him.

It has issued notice to the police of states and sought their response to his plea. The bench also directed no further FIR shall be registered against him based on the episode aired on the show India's Got Latent.

It asked him to deposit his passport with the police and he couldn't leave the country without the permission of the court.

The apex court said that the interim protection is subject to the condition of his joining the investigation and also gave him the liberty to approach the police for protection against threats.

It also directed Allahabadia and his associates to be "off from show business for some time".

During the hearing of the case, advocate Abhnav Chandrachud who was representing Allahabadia, said YouTuber was facing multiple FIRs and had been receiving death threats.

To this, Justice Kant replied, "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."

Justice Kant then asked Chandrachud, "Are you defending the kind of language?"

Advocate said that he was too "disgusted" by the language used by Allahabadia but said that the question was whether it constituted any criminal offence.

"If this is not obscenity, then what is obscenity? So what are the parameters of obscenity and vulgarity? In the society which has some self-evolved values and when we behave within those parameters we want to know what are the parameters of Indian society according to the petitioner," asked the bench.

The bench further said that the person cannot take advantage of his popularity to take society for granted.

Later, the top court asked the Centre if it wanted to do something about obscene content on YouTube and other social media.

"These so-called YouTubers... We would like you (the government) to do something, if the government is willing to do something we are happy, otherwise, we are not going to leave this vacuum and barren area the way it is being misused by so-called YouTube channels and YouTubers..." Justice Kant told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati who was sitting in the courtroom in another matter.

The bench sought the assistance of the Attorney General and Solicitor General in the matter.

It said we should not overlook the importance and sensitivity of the issue.

Allahabadia has approached the apex court seeking to club multiple FIRs lodged against him across India over his recent inappropriate comments during his guest appearance on the show India's Got Latent.

On February 11, the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Guwahati Police had registered an FIR against YouTubers and social influencers Allahabadia, Samay Raina, Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh, Apoorva Makhija, and others for promoting obscenity and engaging in sexually explicit and vulgar discussions on India's Got Latent.

FIRs have been registered against them in Mumbai and Guwahati.