NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday initiated a suo motu criminal contempt proceedings against a digital journalist, Ajay Shukla and ordered him to take down a YouTube video, containing scandalous, contemptuous and defamatory allegations against a judge of the top court.
A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and N V Anjaria found the channel run by Shukla as editor contained scandalous allegations, which are likely to bring disrepute to the institution of judiciary.
The bench said the Constitution guaranteed free speech but it cannot be exploited to make contemptuous allegations against judges.
The court said, "No doubt constitution guarantees free speech, and expression. Such a right is restricted by reasonable restrictions and cannot be allowed to make defamatory allegations regarding judge of this court or contemptuous in nature which brings disrepute to the institute of judiciary".
The court issued notice to Shukla and sought assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General before posting the matter for consideration after summer vacations in July.
The bench said, “Shukla, in the said video clip has made scandalous observations for one of the senior judges of this court. Such allegations widely published on YouTube, are likely to bring disrepute to the august institution of the judiciary".
The bench said by an interim order, it restrained the YouTube channel to stop publication of the video and forthwith take it down.
Mehta said the comments made by the judge were grave in nature.
The court ordered registration of a criminal case as 'In Re: Scandalous Remarks Made By Mr Ajay Shukla, Editor-in-Chief, Varprad Media Pvt Ltd, a Digital Channel'.
Shukla, in his YouTube channel, recently posted a video on with regard to an apex court judge, Justice Bela M Trivedi.
In the video, the caption described as Justice Trivedi as 'Godi judge', a term describing someone as pro government of the Centre.
