The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday, September 16, convicted popular YouTuber Savukku Shankar of criminal contempt and sentenced him to six-month imprisonment for his allegations of corruption in the higher judiciary.
Shankar, known for his controversial commentary on YouTube channel Red Pix, had on 22 July alleged that the “entire higher judiciary is plagued by corruption,” The Indian Express reported.
In the order, Justices GR Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi said, “We would have closed the proceedings if the contemnor had realized his mistake and sincerely apologized. Far from doing so, the contemnor stuck to his position.”
“The contemnor is a suspended employee of the State Government. He is receiving subsistence allowance for the last thirteen years. He is governed by the Conduct Rules. Yet, he has been attacking all the three organs of the State in a vicious manner,” the judges noted in the order.
'Crossing the Lakshman Rekha'
Asserting that Shankar has “reiterated his resolve to attack the judiciary,” the judges observed, “He cannot tar the entire institution with a single brush. That would be crossing the Lakshman rekha by a long shot. It is not as if the said remark accidently tumbled out of his mouth. It was not a slip of the tongue.”
The bench noted that Shankar has admitted to making all the statements that he has been charged with and that “he meant what he said.”
“It does not require a forensic mind to conclude that they are ex-facie scandalous. They denigrate and deride the institution of judiciary,” the judges added.
Who is Savukku Shankar?
Savukku Shankar, a self-styled activist, has thousands of followers across different social media platforms and attempts to take on different institutions, including the judiciary.
An officer of the Department of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption in Tamil Nadu, Shankar was arrested in 2008 for leaking audio tapes containing conversations between two top officials, Deccan Herald reported.
Shankar also faced a separate case of criminal contempt on 19 July this year over his tweet on Justice GR Swaminathan, one of the two judges who delivered Thursday’s order. Shankar had tweeted that Justice Swaminathan had met a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader at a temple on the outskirts of Madurai and alleged that the meeting had influenced the former to quash the complaint against YouTuber Maridhas, who was seen as sympathetic to the Hindutva brigade.
The said tweet was also mentioned in Thursday’s order: “The contemnor was clearly suggesting that the outcome of the said case was influenced by the person whom one of us allegedly met. Since this innuendo questioned the judicial integrity of one of us, the Registry was directed to take action in the matter.”
Shankar had also been in the cross hairs of the Madras High Court back in 2014, when the court had ordered to block his website, observing that it was “vituperative and tarnishing the reputation” of many prominent people, including judges and police officers.
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