Taking a swipe at YouTuber and podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia for his “obscene and vulgar” remarks and observing that “the entire society will be ashamed” of the level of depravity of his comments, the Supreme Court on Tuesday protected him from arrest by the Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Assam police in the first information reports (FIRS) registered against him for his “dirty and perverted” comments during a recent episode of the show ‘India’s Got Latent’.

Directing Ranveer Allahbadia and his associates to stay “off from show business for some time”, a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh directed him to cooperate with the probe in all the cases, deposit his passport to the investigating officer of the Thane police (Maharashtra), and not leave the country without the permission of the top court.

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The bench said that the interim protection from arrest is subject to the condition that he joins the investigation and also granted him liberty to approach the police for protection against threats.

The court also ordered that no further FIRs would be registered against Ranveer Allahbadia for the controversial show.

Coming down heavily on Ranveer Allahbadia’s inappropriate comments and describing them as “dirty and perverted”, the bench said, “If this is not obscenity, then what is obscenity?”

Deriding Allahbadia, Justice Kant said, “Such behaviour has to be condemned. Just because you are popular you cannot take society for granted. Is there anyone on earth who will like this language? There is something very dirty in his mind, which has been vomited by him in the programme. He is insulting parents also. Why should the courts favour him?”

“The words you (Ranveer Allahbadia) have chosen, parents will feel ashamed. Daughters and sisters will feel ashamed. The entire society will be ashamed. These are the levels of depravity you and your henchmen have stooped to. The rule of law and system has to be followed. He should be ashamed of what he has done to his parents. We are not in ivory towers and we know from where he copied (the content)…,” the bench said, taking umbrage at Allahbadia’s remarks.

During the hearing of the case, advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, representing Allahbadia, said the YouTuber was facing multiple FIRs and had been receiving death threats.

Justice Kant said, “If you can try to attain cheap publicity by saying these kinds of things, there might be others also who might want to get cheap publicity by making threats.”

Justice Kant then asked advocate Chandrachud, “Are you defending the kind of language?”

The advocate said that he too was “disgusted” by the language used by Allahbadia but asked that the question was whether it constituted any criminal offence.

“If this is not obscenity, then what is obscenity? So, what are the parameters of obscenity and vulgarity? In the society which has some self-evolved values and when we behave within those parameters, we want to know what are the parameters of Indian society according to the petitioner,” the bench asked.

The bench further said that the person cannot take advantage of his popularity to take society for granted.

In the course of the hearing, the top court asked the central government to consider regulating obscene content on YouTube and other social media platforms and said it would not leave the vacuum and barren area the way it is being misused by so-called YouTube channels.

Seeking the assistance of Attorney General R. Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the matter, the court said, “These so-called YouTubers… We would like you (the government) to do something, if the government is willing to do something, we are happy, otherwise, we are not going to leave this vacuum and barren area the way it is being misused by so-called YouTube channels and YouTubers…” Justice Kant told Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati who was sitting in the courtroom in another matter.

The top court was hearing Ranveer Allahbadia’s plea seeking the clubbing of multiple FIRs registered against him across the country for his obscene remarks during his guest appearance on ‘India’s Got Latent’ show.