Podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia in undertaking to SC says will maintain decency in shows

New Delhi: Podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia on Tuesday filed an undertaking in the Supreme Court saying he would maintain decency in his "The Ranveer Show".

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh was informed by senior advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, appearing for Allahbadia, that his client had filed an undertaking in compliance with the direction of the court and joined the case's investigation and recorded his statements.

Chandrachud sought a modification of the top court's conditions asking Allahbadia to deposit his passport and said it affected his livelihood.

The senior counsel said Allahbadia had to travel abroad for interviewing different people which required holding several rounds of meetings.

The bench said if Allahbadia went abroad it was bound to affect the investigation and asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing Maharashtra and Assam governments, about the time-frame to complete the probe.

Mehta said though he did not seek any instruction on the same, the investigation was likely to be over in two weeks.

The bench said it would consider Allahbadia's prayer for releasing the passport two weeks later.

In compliance with its March 3 direction, the court said Allahbadia had filed an undertaking saying he will maintain decency in his shows and not mention anything related to the cases against him.

The bench observed Allahbadia's affidavit said he had joined the investigation on March 7 and recorded his statements before the investigating officers of the cases registered by the police in Maharashtra and Assam.

The counsel for Youtuber Ashish Chanchlani, who was also booked following the controversy, said his client too had joined the probe but sought all the FIRs against him be clubbed and transferred to one police station.

Chandrachud pointed out Allahbadia made a similar prayer in his plea before the top court and the practice was to transfer all other FIRs to the place where it was first registered.

"In this case, the first FIR was lodged at Mumbai," he said.

The bench asked both Allahbadia and Chanchlani to wait for two more weeks before it considered the prayer for clubbing the FIRs on the next hearing and posted the matter on April 21.

The top court had on March 3 allowed Allahbadia to resume his podcast "The Ranveer Show" subject to maintaining "morality and decency" and making it suitable for viewers of all ages.

Allahbadia, popularly known as BeerBiceps, was booked for his comments on parents and sex on comic Samay Raina's YouTube show "India's Got Latent".

The apex court had initially restrained Allahbadia from airing any programme of his podcast which had a direct or an indirect bearing on the merits of the sub-judice cases he was involved in.

The top court had also expanded the scope of the proceedings and directed the Centre to come up with a draft regulatory mechanism on social media content.

The bench had asked Mehta to deliberate and suggest such a regulatory mechanism which did not impinge upon the right of free speech and expression but was "effective enough to ensure the parameters of such a fundamental right in Article 19 (4) of the Constitution".

Any draft regulatory mechanism, the court had said, could then be brought in the public domain to invite suggestions from all the stakeholders before taking a legislative or judicial measure on the subject.

On February 18, the top court granted interim protection from arrest to Allahbadia while calling his comments "vulgar" and saying he had "dirty mind" which put the society to shame.

Aside from Allahbadia and Raina, others named in the case in Assam are comics Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija.