Porn Videos Case : Supreme Court Grants Interim Protection To Raj Kundra From Coercive Action

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that no coercive action shall be taken against Raj Kundra in a 2020 porn videos case registered by Nodal Cyber Police Station, Bandra.

The bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose while issuing notice in the special leave petition assailing Bombay High Court's order dated November 25, 2021 ("impugned order") directed the State of Maharashtra to file its response within four weeks.

The High Court on November 25, 2021 while extending the protection granted to Raj Kundra by 4 weeks, had rejected his anticipatory bail application.

On November 6, 2020, over 20 people were booked by the Nodal Cyber Police, Mumbai under sections 292 (obscenity), section 67 and 67A (transmitting sexually explicit material), of the Information Technology Act, 2008,, and sections of the Indecent Representation of Women (Protection) Act, 1986.

The accused were booked on the complaint of 67-year-old Madhukar Keni, a retired Customs and Central Excise officer. He approached the Cyber police, on October 31, 2020, with a pen drive and complaint against several adult content platforms. He alleged that when Sherlyn Chopra's name was entered on a search engine, her obscene videos came on screen.

Kundra while assailing the impugned order had sought ex parte ad interim stay to the execution of the order challenged and had also prayed for grant of ad interim anticipatory bail in the FIR registered by Nodal Cyber Police Station, Mumbai dated November 2020.

Details Of The Petition

It was argued that the High Court had completely overlooked the mandatory provisions of law and the factual aspects involved in the matter, including the ground of Parity.

Relying on the Top Court's judgment in Pramod Dhumal v. State (2021 SCC online Bom 34), the petitioners had averred that the High Court had failed to appreciate that Section 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2005 was the only Non-Bailable Section.

It was also stated in the petition that Kundra joined Mr Saurabh Khushwah's venture, "Armsprime" at his request and was also associated with "Armsprime" for a brief period of 10 Months from February 2019 to December 2019.

"Arsmprime was conducting a business of providing online APPs (Applications) to its celebrities who could interact or display their talents through video/pictures etc. to their fans via subscription. Armsprime" would develop a mobile application for Android and IOS devices to facilitate engagement of celebrities with their fans. The artists/celebrity in question has the full editorial control and are expected to adhere to all content related policies of Google Playstore and Apple's App Store," petition stated in this regards.

The petitioner in light of this further contended that before Kundra had joined "Armsprime", Miss. Poonam Pandey was already transacting with Mr. Saurabh Kushwah and the petitioner had no role in making or broadcasting any of the videos of these actresses.

The special leave petition has been filed by Advocate Gopal Balwant Sathe.

Case Title: Ripu Sudan Balakrishan Kundra Alias Raj Kundra v. The State Of Maharashtra| Diary Number 29954/2021

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