Supreme Court stays bail condition requiring Tamil Nadu YouTuber to shut down his channel
G Felix Gerald was arrested in May by the Tamil Nadu Police for hosting an interview with another YouTuber Savukku Shankar on his channel.
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The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a direction by the Madras High Court to YouTuber G Felix Gerald to shut down his YouTube channel RedPix 24x7 as a condition for granting him bail, Bar and Bench reported.
Gerald was arrested in May by the Tamil Nadu Police for hosting an interview with another YouTuber Savukku Shankar on his channel.
In the interview on April 30, Shankar allegedly made defamatory remarks about women police personnel. Shankar, however, claimed that cases were filed against him to stop him from speaking against alleged corruption by politicians and bureaucrats.
In August, the High Court granted bail to Gerald and asked him to shut down his channel as a condition.
On Friday, a bench of Chief Justice Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra questioned why Gerald allowed allegedly offensive remarks to be made during the interview. “Why did you hold such shows which are scurrilous casting such comments on judiciary, women police officers…Why at all?” Chandrachud asked.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Gerald, acknowledged that the comments made during the interview were in bad taste, but questioned the need for shutting down the YouTube channel.
The bench then said it would hear the petition filed by the YouTuber against the bail condition. It also issued a notice to the state government.
Gerald is facing charges under sections of the...
