Supreme Court grants anticipatory bail to Marunadan Malayali editor Shajan Scaria in SC/ST Atrocities Act case

The Supreme Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to Shajan Scaria, the editor and publisher of the YouTube Channel Marunadan Malayali, in the case registered against him for allegedly broadcasting a derogatory news item against Kerala Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) PV Sreenijin. [Shajan Scaria v State of Kerala & Anr].A Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra made absolute an earlier order granting him interim protection from arrest."This appeal succeeds and is hereby allowed. The impugned order passed by the High Court is hereby set aside. We direct that in the event of arrest of the appellant by police in connection with the First Information Report No. 899 of 2023 lodged at the Elamakkara Police Station, he shall be released on bail subject to terms and conditions, which the Investigating Officer may deem fit to impose," it ordered.It clarfied that with regard to the 'reprehensible conduct' of Shankar and the nature of the derogatory statements made, at best a prima facie case of defamation is made out. "If that be so, it is always open for the complainant to prosecute the appellant accordingly.".Senior Advocate V Giri with Advocate Haris Beeran appeared for the original complainant. Senior Advocates Sidharth Luthra and Gaurav Agrawal appeared for Scaria.Senior Advocate PV Dinesh appeared for the Kerala government..The Supreme Court had on July 10 last year granted interim anticipatory bail to Scaria.It had, however, noted that the news reports published by him could be defamatory and directed him to be careful about his discourse.The prosecution's case was that Scaria, in his professional capacity, had telecast a news item containing false, baseless and defamatory allegations against MLA Sreenijin. It was alleged that the news item was broadcast with the intent to insult Sreenijin, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community.A Special Court had dismissed his application for anticipatory bail on June 16.On July 1 last year, the Kerala High Court had refused to grant anticipatory bail, noting that the news item in question contained insults that were intended to humiliate the MLA in public view..The Supreme Court had now set aside the same.In its judgment it noted that the High Court had failed to consider whether Shankar intended to insult or humiliate the complainant on account of the latter's caste."Is it the case of the complainant that had he not belonged to a Scheduled Caste, the appellant would not have levelled the allegations? The answer lies in the question itself. "The term humiliation as it appears in Section 3(1)(r) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribues Atrocities Act must be interpreted as that being intricately associated with caste identities. It held that there was no prima facie case that the YouTuber even attempted to promote feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will against Dalits or tribals."The video has nothing to do in general with the members of Scheduled Caste or the Scheduled Tribe. His target was just the complainant alone. The offence under Section 3(1)(u) will come into play only when any person is trying to promote ill feeling or enmity against the members of the scheduled castes or scheduled tribes as a group and not as individuals.".The Kerala High Court had in August last year granted anticipatory bail to Scaria in connection with a case of hate speech and hurting religious sentiments after an interaction of his on YouTube with a Christian priest..[Read judgment]