The Supreme Court on Monday blasted Comedian Samay Raina for speaking about the controversy surrounding his show ‘India’s Got Latent’ in Canada, saying the young generation thinks they are “oversmart”. The top court was hearing a petition of Podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia, who sparked a huge uproar last month by making crass remarks on Raina’s show.
“These young and oversmart ones think they know more than this…One of them went to Canada and spoke about all this,” Justice Surya Kant said.
To this, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta said, “Yes, he (referring to Raina) went abroad and made fun of this proceeding.”
“Possibly, they do not know the jurisdiction which this court enjoys,” Justice Surya Kant added, warning the Youtubers to “behave”.
“Behave, or else we know how to deal with you,” he said.
Raina, who was on a ‘Samay Raina Unfiltered’ tour in Canada last month, made a light-hearted comment on the controversy. In his first remarks on stage, he joked with the crowd saying, “Thanks for paying my lawyer’s fees”.
A huge row broke out last month after Ranveer Allahbadia, popularly known as The BeerBiceps Guy, made distasteful comments about parents and sex on Raina’s show ‘India’s Got Latent’. The remarks sparked massive outrage and a debate in Parliament, leading to multiple complaints against the social media personality.
Cases were also filed against other YouTubers who appeared on the show, including Raina, Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh, and Apoorva Mukhija.
Hours after the episode was taken down from YouTube, Raina issued a statement saying he had removed all videos of the show from his channel and was “fully cooperating” with the authorities. Allahbadia also apologised in a video, saying his comments were not “just inappropriate but also not even funny”. However, the top court had restrained the 31-year-old YouTuber from shooting any further shows.
The Supreme Court today allowed Allahbadia to resume his podcast ‘The Ranveer Show’, saying there is a “need to balance morality and freedom of expression”. The Supreme Court also asked the Centre to keep this in mind before laying down guidelines for digital content in the aftermath of the massive row.