Supreme Court Issues Notice On Actor-Politician S Ve Shekar's Plea Against Conviction For Derogatory Comments On Woman Journalist

The Supreme Court yesterday (July 17) issued notice on actor-politician S Ve Shekar's plea challenging his conviction in case lodged over derogatory comments against a woman journalist.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi passed the order, extending the interim protection against surrender that was granted earlier in Shekar's favor.The Court was dealing with Shekar's petition against a Madras High Court order of January, whereby the Court refused to interfere with his conviction.To recap, cases against Sheker were registered after he forwarded an abusive, derogatory and vulgar comment on his Facebook account in April 2018. In February 2024, a Sessions Court in Tamil Nadu convicted him for making offensive posts against women journalist(s).Shekar was sentenced to 1-month simple imprisonment and a fine of RS. 2500/- for the offence under Section 504 IPC and 1-month simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 2500/- for the offence under Section 509 of the IPC. He was further sentenced to 1 month simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000 for the offence under Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act 2002.Shekar approached the Madras High Court seeking to quash the criminal proceedings initiated against him, but the court refused to grant him relief.Seeking revision of the order, Shekar argued that the Special Court had failed to note the serious lapses in the investigation and that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt. It was further contended that the original forwarded message was never produced before the court. Shekar also submitted that he had no criminal intention or mens rea to commit any offence.The High Court however was not inclined to accept the submissions and noted that Shekar had forwarded the message with full knowledge of its content and consequences. The court also added that once the prosecution had proved that the petitioner had sent the message in Facebook, certificate under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act was not necessary. Accordingly, the revision application was dismissed.“Mere tendering apology itself would not be sufficient. When once the contents are released and it is also seen by various persons, certainly, the image of the de-facto complainant and other journalists would be degraded and subsequent tendering apology will not remove the image from the public. Therefore, this is a fit case where the petitioner has to be convicted", the Court said.Aggrieved, Shekar approached the Supreme Court. In March, the top Court granted him interim protection from surrender. The next month, when he sought time to convince the complainant to accept his unconditional apology, the interim protection was extended.Yesterday, Advocate Balaji Srinivasan, appearing for Shekar, submitted, "I can't contact her. So I reached out through friends. I sent a detailed letter giving unconditional apology. I'm in your lords' hands".Hearing him, the Court issued notice on the plea and continued the interim protection granted earlier.Case Title: S. VE. SHEKAR Versus THE STATE OF TAMIL NADU, SLP(Crl) No. 4548-4549/2025 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Issues Notice On Actor-Politician S Ve Shekar's Plea Against Conviction For Derogatory Comments On Woman Journalist

Debby Jain

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