In a straight and clear message to persons using social media that they should be extremely careful about making or forwarding posts about women, the Madras High Court on Thursday denied anticipatory bail to leading theatre-film personality and BJP leader S Ve Shekher in a case filed against him by the Tamil Nadu Police.
The actor-cum-director had posted a Facebook message received by him portraying women in a poor light but deleted the same following widespread protests from a section of society. The Tamil Nadu police had filed a criminal case against Shekher under various sections of the Indian Penal Code as ell as Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment (Prevention) Act. Shekher had approached the Madras High Court when his house came under attack by demonstrators who demanded the arrest of the theatre personality despite him tendering a public apology.
Justice S Ramathilagam who heard the appeal said in her verdict that Shekher instead of being a role model to his followers had set a wrong precedent. “What is said is important but who has said it is very important in a society because people respect persons for the social status. When a celebrity forwards a message like this the common people will start to believe it,” said the justice.
The Justice also said that the language and words used in the Facebook post were not indirect but a direct abusive foul language which is not expected from a person of his calibre and age. last Thursday, while reserving the orders, the Justice had sought from Facebook the original message posted by Shekher.
Rejecting the public apology tendered by Shekher, the Justice said: “Mistakes and crimes are not same. Only children can make mistakes which can be pardoned. If the same is done by elderly people it becomes an offence,: said Justice Ramathilagam.
The Facebook message was a fallout of the incident in which Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit was alleged to have patted a lady journalist during a press conference addressed by him last month. Though the Governor expressed regret over the same, the aggrieved journalist said she was not convinced by the public apology tendered by him and this had generated a lot of controversy.
The Opposition DMK and its allies who were having a running battle with the Governor over his style of functioning and visits to the districts for interaction with the officials, made use of the incident much to the embarrassment of the Governor.