Supreme Court stays bail condition imposed on YouTuber to shut down his channel

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Madras High Court direction asking YouTuber G Felix Gerald to shut down his YouTube channel 'RED PIX 24x7’ as bail condition after he was arrested for broadcasting an interview containing derogatory remarks against women police personnel [Felix Jerald v State Rep By Inspector of Police].The High Court had last month passed the direction to Gerald as a condition for his bail in a case related to the interview of another YouTuber Savukku Shankar who had made derogatory remarks against women police personnel.Gerald was arrested in May by the Tamil Nadu Police from Noida in Uttar Pradesh A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra today took exception to the interview."Why did you hold such shows which are scurrilous casting such comments on judiciary, women police officers.. why at all...," CJI Chandrachud asked..Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Gerald, conceded that the comments were in bad taste."I have 2.6 million subscribers and it is a news channel. This show will demoralise women police officers and it should not happen.. but the bail condition imposed...," the counsel said.The Court then said it would hear Gerald's plea against the bail condition along with the Shankar's petitions against preventive detention and criminal cases. "Issue notice, returnable on 27 September 2024. Liberty to serve the Standing Counsel for the State of Tamil Nadu, in addition. Pending further orders, the condition imposed for the closure of the YouTube channel of the petitioner shall remain stayed. The petitioner shall, however, comply with all other conditions imposed by the courts below for the grant of bail", the Court ordered..The High Court last month had granted bail to Gerald who was booked by the Coimbatore cyber-crime police for the interview. Several complaints had been made against Shankar as well as Gerald across Tamil Nadu following the interview.On June 24 this year, Justice Thamilsevi had dismissed a previous bail application filed by Gerald after agreeing with the prosecution that by interviewing Shankar and broadcasting such interview, Gerald had provided Shankar a platform to make the derogatory comments..Advocates Bharathimohan M, Santhosh K, Manoj Kumar A, P Ashok, Jhanvi Dubey, Trisha Chandran, and Vairawan AS also appeared for Felix Gerald..[Read order]