NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal of popular YouTuber Savukku Shankar challenging the Madras High Court’s order refusing to interfere with the sealing of his office in Chennai.
"Don't think the writ court is the panacea for all ills. Sorry. Dismissed," said a two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Dipankar Datta.
Earlier, the Madras High Court on December 30, 2025, had declined to stay the sealing order and directed Shankar to approach the jurisdictional magistrate under Sections 105–107 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023. Section 106 of BNSS empowers police to seize property suspected to be involved in a crime, with mandatory reporting to superiors and magistrates.
Following the HC's order of refusal, Shankar, through senior advocate Balaji Srinivasan, moved the apex court by filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) assailing the HC order, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Srinivasan sought a direction from the top court to issue a writ of Mandamus directing the respondent to forthwith unseal the petitioner's office premises situated at No.111, Aranganathan Illam, 2nd Floor, Jai Kasthuri Parthasarathy Nagar, 3rd Street, Adambakkam, Chennai, and further forbidding the respondent from deploying the police personnel in the entrance of petitioner's office premises.
"The impugned order is perverse and unsustainable for many reasons," he argued.
The plea added, sealing of immovable property under Section 106 of BNSS, was in direct contravention of the binding law that immovable property does not fall within the meaning of "property" under Section 106 of BNSS (earlier Section 102 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
"It fails to examine the foundational issue of the lack of power of the police authorities, and mechanically relegates the Petitioner to an alternate remedy. It equates filing of a police report with legality, even where the initial seizure/sealing is ex facie ultra vires. It ignores that the property sealed is wholly unconnected to the alleged offence," the plea stated.