MADURAI: Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Registry of the Court to initiate suo motu contempt proceedings against YouTuber Savukku Shankar for making 'offending' remarks about the judge on social media.
The remarks were made on Monday in connection with a judgment passed by Justice Swaminathan, quashing an FIR registered against YouTuber Maridhas in February this year.
"He asks me 'who I met at 6 am at Azhagar Koil when I was hearing the case pertaining to Maridhas?' By this innuendo, Shankar is suggesting that the outcome of the Maridhas case was influenced by the person I am alleged to have met. This is clearly scandalising the judiciary," the judge criticised.
Though Shankar had commented on many of his judgments in the most uncharitable language and his attacks have often been personal, his latest tweet appears to have crossed the lakshman rekha, he said.
"Imputing partiality, bias or improper motives to a judge is scandalisation of the court and would amount to criminal contempt," he held and directed the Registry to initiate suo motu contempt proceedings against Shankar and issue a statutory notice to him.
He was told to appear in person. Noting that Shankar was employed in the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption as a ministerial staff and is getting subsistence allowance for several years, the judge said, "The State government is obliged to make a statement regarding the status of the disciplinary action initiated against Savukku Shankar."
The judge also added social media intermediaries Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as parties in the case and directed them to submit details of the complaints they have received against Shankar and the action taken by them on such complaints.
"These entities have compliance officers and their duty is to ensure that content scandalising judges and judiciary are not posted and if posted, are taken down," the judge observed and asked them to make a statement as to whether they had considered taking suo motu action to 'uphold and safeguard the dignity of the Indian judiciary'.
The judge further impleaded the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in the case. Earlier, Justice Swaminathan noted that Shankar had been 'poking fun' at him for sitting prior to or beyond the court hours.
The judge attached a copy of his disposal record during his five years of service as a judge, which indicated that from June 28, 2017 to June 24, 2022, he disposed of 70,014 cases. His sitting hours have helped him achieve this result, the judge said.