The Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar, alias A. Shankar, from making and circulating on social media any defamatory statement, article, picture, cartoon, caricature, sketch or video which could cause damage or tend to lower the reputation of Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise V. Senthilbalaji.
Justice Krishnan Ramasamy granted the interim injunction following a civil suit filed by the Minister seeking ₹2 crore in damages for the loss of reputation. Apart from the injunction application, he had taken out another application for an interim direction to the YouTuber to remove all the offending social media posts.
The judge agreed with senior counsel AR.L. Sundaresan that in a democratic set-up, no one had the right to disparage the reputation of another person and the YouTuber had prima facie indulged in slander through his social media posts. The judge concurred that the Minister would suffer an irreparable loss if the injunction was not granted.
In the plaint filed through his counsel-on-record Richardson Wilson, the Minister complained that the YouTuber had compared him with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who had revolted against Shiv Sena chief and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to capture power in the State.
Further, the Minister had also been accused of running all bars attached to liquor shops in the State, besides having given ₹200 crore to the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam towards election expenses. The allegations further extended to involvement in a job scam and in the death of a victim of the scam.
Claiming that the wild allegations had been made with an oblique motive, the Minister told the court that the YouTuber had not spared even the judiciary and that he was at present facing suo motu contempt of court proceedings initiated by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
