Actor S.V. Shekhar. File | Photo credit: M. Periasamy
The Madras High Court on Tuesday (December 17, 2024) reserved its verdict on a criminal revision petition filed by actor S.Ve. In a case registered in 2018 for sharing a Facebook post containing derogatory comments against women journalists, Sekhar had in March this year challenged the trial court’s February 19, 2024 sentence and one month’s simple imprisonment.
Justice P. Velmurugan reserved his judgment after hearing arguments presented by advocate Venkatesh Mahadevan for the petitioner and government advocate Vinod Kumar. During arguments, the petitioner’s counsel contended that the prosecution had only submitted the screenshot of the reported Facebook post and had failed to prove its authenticity.
The advocate said that the police did not submit a certificate under Section 65B of the Information Technology Act to prove the authenticity of the electronic records. However, when the petitioner himself requested the court to dismiss the case registered against him and apologized, the judge questioned whether it is necessary for the prosecution to submit such a certificate.
While apologizing unconditionally, Justice Velmurugan pointed out that the petitioner had said that the message was written by someone else and that he had inadvertently shared it on his Facebook account without reading it properly. “You share anything and everything you get on social media,” the judge asked the amendment petitioner’s lawyer.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh had in July 2023 quashed the petition, observing that even though the petitioner was an educated person and a well-known person with a large fan following in the state, he had carefully read the Facebook post which contained obscenities and obscenities. The comment she shared on 19 April 2018 showed women journalists in a very bad light.
“This court is hesitant to even translate the message forwarded (shared) by the petitioner as it is, to say the least, scandalous. The contents are highly offensive against the press in Tamil Nadu as a whole… A message sent or forwarded on social media is like an arrow from a bow. … The person sending the message. Should own up to the results,” the judge said.
published – December 17, 2024 at 01:05 pm IST