The Supreme Court, on Friday, heard a petition filed by Ashish Chanchlani, who is seeking the cancellation or transfer of an FIR to Mumbai, which has been registered against him in connection to row over a vulgar joke on Samay Raina’s show, India’s Got Latent.
Ashish is one of the people named in an FIR lodged in Assam, which has mentioned YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia as the main accused. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh will hear the matter today.
The highest court has requested response from Maharashtra and Assam governments regarding the YouTuber’s petition. Justices Kant and Singh has issued notice and combined Ashish’s petition with fellow YouTuber Ranveer’s case.
Initially, the bench informed the legal representatives of Ashish, about his existing bail status. To which, his lawyers acknowledged it, but contested the registration of multiple FIRs related to a single programme.
The bend acknowledged its consideration of the matter and consolidated Ashish’s petition.
The YouTuber’s lawyers, Shubham Kulshreshtha and Manju Jaitley, in their petition had sought either cancellation of the FIR or transfer of the same from Assam to Mumbai, citing that it was first registered in latter. The lawyers had also argued that their client did not say anything obscene on the show, and the allegations were levelled against other people.
The Gauhati High Court granted pre-arrest bail to Ashish on Tuesday, and has instructed him to appear before the authorities within 10 days.
Meanwhile, Ranveer was given protection from arrest by the apex court on Tuesday. However, the bench, who will be hearing Ashish’s case today, blasted Ranveer for his “vulgar” remark.
The controversy is linked to a vulgar question asked by Allahbadia on Samay Raina’s show regarding “parents having sex”, a clip of which quickly went viral on social media and triggered massive backlash.
