Tamil Nadu YouTuber remanded to 6-month judicial custody

The bench comprising Justices, G.R. Swaminathan and B. Pugalendhi observed that neither did the YouTuber show any remorse for his statement nor did he apologize.

Chennai: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has sent well-known YouTuber, ‘Savukku’ Shankar to a six-month judicial custody in a case related to his remarks against the higher judiciary.

The court had initiated a ‘suo moto‘ contempt of court proceedings against him over his remarks that the entire higher judiciary is riddled with corruption which he made during an interview to a YouTube channel on July 22.

---

The bench comprising Justices, G.R. Swaminathan and B. Pugalendhi observed that neither did the YouTuber show any remorse for his statement nor did he apologize.

It further observed that ‘Savukku’ Shankar had in fact asserted that he was justified in making such charges.

The bench also said that the statements made by him would lower the prestige and dignity of the courts and judges before the public.

“We would have closed the proceedings if the contemnor has realised his mistake and sincerely apologized. However without doing that the contemnor stuck to his position. In fact, his conduct during the past few weeks would constitute acts of condemnation on its own,” the judges said.

They added that the contempt of court proceedings was initiated by the Madras High Court against the YouTuber six years ago and still he was continuing with his tirade against the judiciary.

The bench said: “The contemnor has reiterated his resolve to continue his attack on the judiciary. He has gone to the extent to state that he can be sentenced only to a maximum of six months and that after coming out he will focus all his attention on judges and judiciary.

“There are occasions when judges have to be firm and stern. Shrugging of such provocations by stating that we process broad shoulders would be seen as a sign of weakness. The contemnor has shown himself as an unrepentant character.”

The bench also observed that the contemnor was a popular YouTuber with lakhs watching his interviews.

“In the comment section of his interviews, Judges and Courts are portrayed in the most savage terms. It is no exaggeration to say that the contemnor has the ears of thousands of persons in social media and his words have the effect of lowering the prestige and dignity of this institution.”

The court also directed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to ensure that the offending interviews and articles are taken down forthwith.