New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Maharashtra and Assam governments on a plea of YouTuber Ashish Chanchlani seeking to quash or transfer to Mumbai an FIR registered in Guwahati in connection with a case of allegedly promoting obscenity in an online show.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh issued a notice and tagged Chanchlani’s plea with influencer Ranveer Allahbadia’s pending petition.
At the outset, the bench told Chanchlani’s counsel that he had already been granted bail on the matter.
The counsel for Chanchlani admitted that he had got relief, but he was against the lodging of multiple FIRs in connection with that one particular show.
The bench said they were already hearing the issue and tagged Chanchlani’s plea.
On February 18, the top court granted interim protection from arrest to podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia over his comments on a YouTube show while calling it "vulgar" and saying he had a "dirty mind", which put society to shame.
Several FIRs were lodged against Allahbadia, popularly known as BeerBiceps, for the comment on parents and sex on comic Samay Raina's YouTube show "India's Got Latent".
The Gauhati High Court Tuesday granted interim bail to Chanchlani while hearing his anticipatory bail petition and asked him to be present before the investigating officer within 10 days.
The FIR was registered by the Guwahati Police on a complaint of an individual on February 10 under various sections of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhtia (BNS), Information Technology Act, Cinematograph Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
with inputs from PTI