The Supreme Court on Friday initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Chandigarh-based journalist and YouTuber Ajay Shukla for his "scandalous", defamatory and contemptuous remarks against a few apex court judges in a video uploaded on his channel.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and AS Chandurkar also directed that the offending video be immediately taken down and restrained the YouTube channel from republishing it or similar content.It also issued a notice to Shukla, the editor-in-chief of Varprad Media.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta described the remarks as "very serious" and expressed his gratitude to the bench for taking up suo motu cognisance of the issue.
"Such scandalous allegations widely published are likely to bring disrepute to the august institution of the judiciary. No doubt the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech. But this freedom is subject to reasonable restrictions."A person cannot be permitted to make allegations which are in the nature of defaming a judge of this Court and also contemptuous in nature, which attempts to bring disrepute to the institution of the judiciary," the CJI said.
"We direct the registry to register the case as a suo motu contempt against Ajay Shukla. The YouTube channel shall be made a party respondent. The Attorney General (R Venkataramani) and the Solicitor General (Tushar Mehta) are requested to assist the court," it ordered. The bench said by an interim order, it restrains the YouTube channel to stop publication of the video and forthwith take it down. Shukla recently posted a video making remarks against retired judge Bela M Trivedi. The three-judge Bench said in a short order that such remarks brought the institution of judiciary into disrepute.
Chief Justice Gavai said free speech was subject to reasonable restrictions, and making defamatory and contemptuous comments about a sitting Supreme Court judge cannot be protected in the name of freedom of expression.Attorney General R. Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta were present in the court room.Mehta said the comments were grave in nature and he was glad the court has taken cognisance of them. It was he who suggested to the Bench to additionally describe Shukla’s comments as “defamatory and contemptuous”.It directed the “taking down” of the social media post with immediate effect.
Shukla’s YouTube channel had posted a video on Supreme Court judge, Justice Bela M. Trivedi, recently. Justice Trivedi is retiring on June 9.The court issued notice to Shukla, who is editor-in-chief of the Varprad Media Pvt Ltd, a digital channel hosted on YouTube.
The Bench scheduled the suo motu contempt case after the vacations, possibly in July.
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