MADURAI/CHENNAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday granted one week time to YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar to respond to the suo motu contempt proceedings initiated against him for making controversial remarks against the higher judiciary on social media.
A special bench comprising Justices GR Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi on September 1 directed Shankar to file a counter to the show cause notice issued to him for saying “the entire higher judiciary is riddled with corruption” in a YouTube channel interview on July 22.
But when the case was heard on Thursday morning, Shankar instead requested the court to furnish a copy of the materials relied upon by the court for the said contempt proceedings, adding that he cannot give an explanation till then.
The judges initially rejected the request and passed over the case to 1 pm for framing charges against Shankar. They then served him a copy of the charges, which contained various remarks made by Shankar against the judges and court staff in his interviews on many YouTube channels and also from his social media account.
Later at 2.15 pm, the judges accepted his request and directed the Registry of the Court to furnish the relevant materials sought by Shankar and told him to file a reply within 24 hours. But Shankar sought more time to prepare his explanation.
Though the judges agreed to grant further time if he gave an undertaking that he would not make any comments regarding the above pending proceedings in the public domain, Shankar refused to give such an undertaking. He further said, “I don’t have faith in this court.” However, to ensure a fair hearing for the contemnor, the judges gave him one week’s time to submit his explanation and adjourned the case to September 15.
Meanwhile, the Madras HC on Thursday restrained YouTuber and activist Savukku Shankar from making defamatory statements against G Square Realtor Pvt Ltd. Justice CV Karthikeyan passed the interim orders restraining the YouTuber and directed him to file a reply to G Square’s petition and posted the matter to September 30.
The realty firm alleged that Shankar has been making baseless statements defaming it. Ever since he started to make such statements, 28 customers cancelled their bookings, forcing the firm to return `15 crore. It also stated that the firm had not faced such financial stress in the past 10 years. It sought damages of Rs 1.010 crore from the YouTuber and prayed for the court to issue an interim injunction to restrain him from making defamatory statements.
Shankar’s request
When the case was heard on Thursday, Shankar requested the court to furnish a copy of the materials relied upon by the court for the said contempt proceedings, adding that he cannot give an explanation till then