SC initiates contempt proceedings against journalist Ajay Shukla

Today, the Supreme Court heard contempt proceedings against a Chandigarh-based YouTuber, Ajay Shukla, for airing scandalous allegations against a senior Supreme Court judge. The Court had taken suo moto cognisance of the issue yesterday. 

Shukla is the Editor-in-Chief of a digital channel named ‘The Principle’, run by Varprad Media India Pvt Ltd. In a recent video, he allegedly made remarks about a Supreme Court judge. The Bench pulled him up because “scandalous allegations widely published on YouTube are likely to bring disrepute to the august institution of judiciary.”

The matter was heard by a Partial Court Working Days Bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justices A.G. Masih and A.S. Chandurkar. The Bench observed that while the Constitution guarantees free speech, it is subject to reasonable restrictions. A person cannot make contemptuous allegations defaming a judge of the Supreme Court under the guise of free speech. This, the Bench noted, was detrimental to the judiciary. 

The directions

The Bench made YouTube a respondent. In the Order, the Bench requested the Attorney General and the Solicitor General to assist the Court. The judges restrained YouTube from continuing the publication of the contemptuous video and directed it to be taken down immediately from the channel. 

The Bench accepted SG Tushar Mehta’s suggestion that the allegation aired on the channel be described as “defamatory and contemptuous”, besides being characterised as scandalous. It further agreed that it attracted the ingredients of Article 19(2). The matter will be heard again after the Partial Court Working Days.

A change in approach? 

CJI Gavai’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach to contempt matters is in contrast with his predecessor, CJI Sanjiv Khanna’s view that “courts are not as fragile as flowers to wither and wilt under such ludicrous statements.” On 5 May, a Bench led by the former Chief had dismissed a petition to initiate suo moto contempt proceedings against BJP MP Nishikant Dubey for his remarks on the Court after the Waqf hearings. While talking to the press on 11 May as CJI-designate, Justice Gavai had expressed the view that other judges of the Court might have taken a different view in the Dubey contempt matter.