India’s Got Latent row: On Ashish Chanchlani’s plea to club FIRs against him, SC issues notice to Assam, Maharashtra

Chanchlani is facing FIRs in the two states and has sought that they be clubbed and transferred to Maharashtra.

On February 18, the SC granted interim protection from arrest to Allahbadia, who is also facing an FIR in Jaipur apart from the two states, for his comments during the YouTube show. The court also deprecated his language and barred him from airing “any show” until further orders. It said his conduct showed a “lack of responsibility” and was “condemnable”.

“There is something that is dirty in his mind that has been vomited by way of this programme… The words you have chosen, parents will feel ashamed, daughters and sisters will feel ashamed, brothers will feel ashamed, entire society will feel ashamed, the pervert mind and the perversion you and your henchmen have exhibited,” Justice Kant said while hearing Allahabadia’s plea.

The SC also sought to know whether the government intended to do something about obscenity in social media content. It said it would like to hear from the government on this and sought the presence of the Attorney General and the Solicitor General at the next hearing.

The alleged remarks were made during an episode of comedian Samay Raina’s YouTube show. Besides Allahbadia and Chanchlani, Assam police booked influencers Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija, who were part of the show, for “promoting obscenity and engaging in sexually explicit and vulgar discussion”.

Chanchlani earlier moved the Gauhati High Court, which granted him interim anticipatory bail on February 18.