The Madras High Court today convicted A Shankar of criminal contempt.
Madurai, Tamil Nadu:
The Madras High Court today convicted a famous YouTuber A Shankar alias ‘Savukku’ Shankar for criminal contempt and sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment. The court had taken up the case against Shankar on its own.
A bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi had asked Shankar to explain why he should not be held guilty of “defaming the judiciary” by making allegations of corruption.
In the previous hearing, he had not expressed any regret or remorse and had admitted to making such statement, the court said.
“It is to be noted that the contemptible has admitted all the impugned statements. There is no need for a forensic mind to conclude that they are pre-emptive reprehensible. They defame and ridicule the institution of the judiciary. Legal proverb “res ipsa loquitor” (the thing speaks for itself) can be applied equally,” the bench said.
Shankar’s statement that the entire higher judiciary is plagued by corruption was the subject of the show cause notice.
“Contempt would be well within his rights to highlight specific instances of corruption. Surely, they should be backed by content. He cannot tarnish the entire institution with a single brush. This one Have to cross the Lakshman Rekha with a long shot.” To portray the entire institution of the higher judiciary as corrupt is criminal contempt of the highest level. The judges said that to declare in the public domain that all judges are corrupt and dishonest, clearly amounts to criminal contempt.
He also rejected his defense of “over-representation” of Brahmins in the judiciary while talking about three judges and said that the Supreme Court is the last judicial institution in the country.
Its decisions constitute the law of the land. The contribution of the Supreme Court is immeasurable. The court said that all its judges deserve the highest honour.
“The conduct of the contemptuous person (Shankar) is noteworthy. He did not express any regret or remorse anywhere. He did not offer any apology. On the other hand, he insisted that in making the impugned statement he were justified. A reading would take any of the impugned statements to the conclusion that they may undermine the prestige and honor of the courts and judges. Therefore, we hold that contempt is criminal contempt. guilty,” the bench said.
On the sentencing, the court said that if Shankar had realized his mistake and offered a sincere apology, it would have closed the proceedings.
“Far to do so, the contemnor stuck to his post… The contemnor is a suspended employee of the State Government. He is drawing subsistence allowance for the last thirteen years. He is governed by the conduct rules .
Yet, he has been viciously attacking all the three organs of the state. He is already facing criminal contempt proceedings. Despite this, he has given objectionable statements. The contemnor has reiterated his resolve to continue his attack on the judiciary. He has even said that he can be punished with a maximum sentence of six months.
The court noted that Justice VR Krishna Iyer observed that “justice fails when judges quail”. “We do not propose to quail. There are occasions when judges have to be firm and harsh. Such provocation by saying that we have broad shoulders would be seen as a sign of weakness.” “The accuser has shown himself to be of an unrepentant character. In view of the principles laid down by the Hon’ble Division Bench in the judgment reported in (2016) 2 CTC 113 (W.Peter Ramesh Kumar), we hold contempt. shall be punished with simple imprisonment of six months. He shall be immediately detained and lodged in the Central Jail, Madurai,” the bench ordered.
Among the respondents were social media giants Twitter and Facebook, Google and Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)