India's Got Latent remarks row: SC orders return of passport to Ranveer Allahbadia
New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the return of passport to podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia to enable him to travel abroad for work.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh relaxed the condition after Assam and Maharashtra governments said the investigation against him was complete.
The bench asked Allahbadia to approach the Maharashtra cyber police bureau to retrieve his passport.
The top court told Allahbadia's lawyer, senior advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, it would consider his prayer to club the FIRs against his client and bring it in one place on the next hearing.
Chandrachud said the Maharashtra FIR was the first one on the issue and the Guwahati FIR could be clubbed with it as it stemmed from the same facts and incident.
Justice Kant, however, told Chandrachud the Guwahati FIR comprised a different set of allegations, specific to people of Assam.
"If you want to argue on the issue, then we will hear it on the next date of hearing and you can make out case then," the judge said.
The bench also allowed NGO Cure SMA Foundation of India to implead "India's Got Latent" host Samay Raina and other co-accused through the police of Maharashtra and Assam, as their statements were recorded in the case.
Senior advocate Aprajita Singh, representing the NGO, said they were not able to implead Raina and others in the case as respondents for want of their addresses and requested the bench to allow them to be made parties even without their particulars.
The NGO referred to deficiencies in the existing legal framework and urged the bench to formulate guidelines on online content.
The comprehensive guidelines and regulatory measures were sought to regulate any "derogatory, denigrating, ableist and belittling content against the persons with disability, their diseases and their treatment options" by stakeholders, including but not limited to "publishers of online curated content, publishers of news and current affairs content, self-styled influencers and content creators, broadcasters, intermediaries" among others.
The NGO said while it did not intend to seek a blanket restraint, it was concerned with derogatory content on persons with disabilities.
"Notably, this requires maintaining the highest degree of sensitivity and compassion across the channels, however, that becomes a mammoth task when certain individuals, like the comedian, Samay Raina, host a comedy show and make insensitive commentaries on persons such with such condition, the high-costing drugs and the treatment options," it said.
The NGO's plea said Raina's act in turn deprecated the public mindset, often resulting in perpetuating lack of receptivity towards the seriousness of the illness, or the ensuing challenges in the resource management.
On February 18, the top court protected Allahbadia from arrest in multiple FIRs filed over his comments during a YouTube show and directed him to deposit his passport with the investigating officer of Police Station Nodal Cyber Police, Thane.
On March 3, it allowed Allahbadia to resume his podcast "The Ranveer Show" subject to maintaining "morality and decency" and making it suitable for viewers of all ages.
Allahbadia, popularly known as BeerBiceps, was booked for his comments on parents and sex on an episode of India's Got Latent.
The apex court initially restrained Allahbadia from airing any programme of his podcast having a "direct or an indirect" bearing on the merits of the sub-judice cases against him.
On February 18, the top court granted interim protection from arrest to Allahbadia and termed his comments "vulgar" and accused him of having a "dirty mind".
Aside from Allahbadia and Raina, others named in the case in Assam are comics Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
