By Hritam Mukherjee
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s top court allowed a podcaster charged with obscenity to resume airing his shows on the condition they met standards of “morality and decency”, relaxing on Monday its previous order that the programme should stop until further notice.
Popular fitness influencer and podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia, known by his moniker BeerBiceps, was accused of obscenity after he asked a contestant in a YouTube show about watching his parents having sex, drawing multiple police complaints.
A two-judge Supreme Court bench was, on Monday, hearing Allahabadia’s request that all the cases be bundled into one.
“Subject to the petitioner furnishing an undertaking… that his own podcast shows will maintain the standards of decency and morality, so that viewers of any age group can watch, the petitioner is permitted to resume ‘The Ranveer Show’,” the court said.
The 31-year-old, who has nearly 20 million subscribers on two YouTube channels, has hosted Bollywood stars, businessmen and ministers on the widely watched podcast.
Supreme Court Judge Surya Kant also said that the show was being permitted to resume “since livelihood of 280 employees” depended on its telecast.
The court, however, barred Allahabadia from airing any shows that could have a “bearing” on merits of the case.
Allahabadia’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for a comment on Monday’s order, which came nearly a fortnight after the court asked him to stop airing shows.
The podcaster last year shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a social media stars’ event.
“India’s Got Latent”, the show on which Allahabadia made the comments, involves a team of comedians judging newcomers’ stand-up comedy.
India does not censor online platforms such as Google-owned YouTube but remains a largely conservative society in which many espouse family and religious values, prompting complaints about shows seen as transgressing decency norms.
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in New Delhi; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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