The Supreme Court on Monday permitted YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, commonly known as BeerBiceps, to resume hosting his podcast, The Ranveer Show, without breaching the general standards of morality and decency.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice NK Singh passed the order on a petition filed by Allahabadia in connection with multiple FIRs lodged against him across the country over his alleged obscene remarks made during an episode of ‘India’s Got Latent’.
Earlier on February 18, the Apex Court granted him interim protection from arrest on several conditions. The YouTuber was directed not to either appear or air any other show till further orders.
Appearing for Allahabadia, Advocate Abhinav Chandrachud today argued that this condition was affecting not only the YouTuber’s livelihood, but also those of his 280-odd employees.
The Bench then allowed Allahabadia to resume his podcast, provided that his shows maintained the desired standards of morality and decency.
Taking note of the submissions made by the Union of India that some regulatory measures may be required to prevent the telecast of programmes breaching the known norms of Indian society, the Apex Court today said that it was inclined to expand the scope of the case to examine the boundaries of permissible free speech..
While granting him interim protection from arrest on February 14, the Apex Court came down heavily on the YouTuber during the hearing, terming the language used by him as ‘dirty’ and ‘perverted’.
The Bench asked Advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, appearing for Allahabadia, whether he defended the language used by the YouTuber?
While accepting that he was ‘disgusted’ by the language used by Allahabadia, Chandrachud said the question here was whether the same constituted any criminal offence.
He cited the verdict in Apoorva Arora case, which held that profanity per se would not amount to obscenity.
The Apex Court then asked him, if this was not obscenity, then what exactly constituted obscenity?
The Bench further said that the judgment in the Apoorva Arora case could not give a licence to people to say whatever they wanted.
Advocate Chandrachud contended that complaints were being filed all over the country against Allahabadia.
The Bench said there were only two FIRs. One was filed in his hometown Mumbai itself and the other one was in Guwahati.
Chandrachud said that as per his knowledge, there was one more FIR in Jaipur. Referring to the judgment in the TT Antony case, he argued that there could not be multiple FIRs over the same offence.
The Apex Court observed that the ingredients of the FIRs were different and they were filed with respect to different statements. The dirty language and the humiliating FIR used against the persons of Arunachal Pradesh was the subject of another FIR filed against Allahabadia, it added.
The Bench remarked that there was something very dirty in the perverted mind of Allahabadia, which had been vomited in the program.
Noting that YouTuber even insulted the parents, it asked Chandrachud, why should the Courts favour Allahabadia?
Chandrachud then apprised the Court that his client was receiving death threats. The Bench assured that the State would take care of that.
Referring to the Nupur Sharma case, the Counsel argued that the Court granted her relief, although the statement made by her was ‘much worse’.
The top court of the country observed that the way Allahabadia tried to gain cheap publicity by saying such things, others may follow suit. It further berated the YouTuber for using such words, which embarrassed the whole society, including the parents, sisters and daughters.
The Counsel apprised the Bench that his colleague who went to the police station was also mobbed.
Expressing its strong disapproval over a lawyer going to the police station, the Bench observed that just because the litigants were able to pay, the lawyers have started rendering such types of services. It further termed the act as an insult to the uniform.
The matter pertained to an episode of comedian Samay Raina’s Youtube show ‘India’s Got Latent,’ which was shot on November 14, 2024 at Khar Habitat, and recently went on air.
As part of the judges panel, Allahabdia made some vulgar comments, which led to the registration of multiple FIRs against him across the country.
YouTubers Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija were also part of the episode.
Raina later issued a public apology and deleted all episodes of India’s Got Latent from his Youtube channel.
On his part, Allahabad issued a public apology, admitting that his comments were inappropriate.
On February 10, Guwahati Police registered an FIR against five YouTubers and content creators for promoting ‘obscenity’ and engaging in ‘sexually explicit and vulgar discussion’.
The Maharashtra Cyber Department and Jaipur Police have also reportedly registered cases in connection with the controversy.