YouTuber and Whistle-blower ‘Savukku’ Shankar Found Guilty, Sentenced to Six Months in Jail in Contempt Case
The Madras High Court has sentenced the YouTuber to six months of imprisonment for his remarks on the judiciary
On Thursday, September 15, The Madras High Court declared Savukku Shankar, a well-known activist and YouTuber, guilty of criminal contempt. The court has sentenced the YouTuber to six months of imprisonment for his remarks on the judiciary.
Savukku Shankar has blamed the higher judiciary for corruption, multiple times in his articles. During an interview on July 22 with the YouTube channel RedPix, Savukku Shankar made a derogatory comment on the judiciary and said that “the entire higher judiciary is plagued by corruption”.
In the trial that took place on Thursday, September 15, the bench at Madras High Court considered a total of five instances where Shankar had made derogatory remarks against the judiciary.
These included some major and brutal allegations, like judges always appointed good-looking widows in their courts, and that the judges’ security personnel had become brokers for litigants seeking favourable judgements.
Responding to his derogatory remark on the judiciary and taking cognizance of his previous statements, The Madras High court bench of Justice G R Swaminathan and Justice B Pugalendhi during the trial stated that Savukku Shankar cannot tar the entire institution with a single brush, that would cross his limit by a longshot. The court asserted that the derogatory remark didn’t tumble out of Shankar’s mouth accidentally, he meant each and every word of what he said against the judiciary.
The bench of Justice G R Swaminathan and Justice B Pugalendhi further claimed that the YouTuber Savukku Shankar did not express any regret over his comment, nor did the offender apologize in front of the court.
The high court of Madras thereby dismissed the YouTuber’s request to suspend his sentence until he files an appeal with the apex court. After the trial at the Madras High court, Savukku Shankar was immediately taken into custody by the Madurai central prison.
The verdict of Madras High court in the case of Savukku Shankar has witnessed mixed reactions. While a large number of lawyers supported the verdict, some of the lawyers were of the opinion that the Madras High court had actually ‘overreacted’ in the case of Savukku Shankar, they strongly believe that it was unfair of the judiciary to allow Justice GR Swaminathan to preside the case, since one of Shankar’s allegations of corruption was directed at Justice GR Swaminathan, as well.
