Madras HC confirms one-month jail term for S Ve Shekher for sexist remark on women journalists

CHENNAI: In a major setback to popular actor S Ve Shekher, the Madras High Court on Thursday confirmed the one-month prison sentence awarded to him by the trial court for sharing a social media post containing sexist and abusive message against women journalists.

When Shekher’s criminal revision petition came for hearing before him, Justice P Velmurugan confirmed the prison term, but the court gave liberty for the actor to file a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, and directed the police not to execute the imprisonment order for 90 days.

During the hearing, Shekher’s counsel Venkatesh Mahadevan objected to the special court for hearing cases related to MPs/MLAs, Chennai, accepting the digital evidence without the certification as mandated by section 65B(4) of the Indian Evidence Act. As per the act, obtaining certification for the digital evidence is mandatory, without which no accused can be convicted as was held by the Supreme Court in various judgments, argued the counsel.

He added that the defamatory statement was originally posted by one Thirumalai Sadagopan, a resident of the United States. Without knowing the content of the post, Shekher shared it on his social media handle, the counsel claimed. After realising that the content of the post was defamatory, he removed the post from his social media handle within one hour and also tendered an unconditional apology, he submitted.

In 2018, the Tamil Nadu Journalist Protection and Welfare Association lodged a complaint against Shekher over the post he shared on social media.

On February 19, 2024, the special court in Chennai found him guilty under section under 504 and 509 of IPC and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act, 2002. It then awarded Shekher one month simple imprisonment and imposed Rs 15,000 fine.