The court jester’s dilemma

When Aakash Shah, admin of the Facebook parody page Bombay High Court, learnt that there was a suo motu PIL filed against him with the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, his first reaction was a mix of disappointment and confusion. It was when a couple of people shared the news article from the Nagpur edition of a national publication that Aakash got to know about it. The PIL accuses Aakash of maligning and besmirching the judiciary’s image by posting various comments on social media platforms under the guise of parody or spoof.

Aakash even phoned stand-up comic Tanmay Bhat of All India Bhakchod, who he works with. “I wasn’t scared; it had happened a month ago as well. When I called Tanmay, he asked me to relax,” recalls Aakash. “I will have to go for a hearing to get this sorted,” he resigns.

The comic writer, however, isn’t surprised this has happened. “I was expecting it to happen sooner or later. But, I had no idea that anyone would have so much time on their hands to go to this extent to shut down a parody page,” he sighs.

Aakash Shah

Created in December 2016, the page today has almost 3.5 lakh followers from across the country. As soon as the news broke out, several followers came out in support of the page accusing the country of not being able to take a joke.

The next step for him is to simply follow protocol, he says. “I have taken advice from AIB’s legal team and have also gotten in touch with the Facebook team. Over a few phone calls and emails, we decided to rename the page to Unofficial Bombay High Court,” he states.

At some point though, Aakash feared losing the page altogether. “It is Facebook protocol; if a post on the website hurts people’s sentiments, they are more likely to take the post down,” he says, adding that they instead resorted to only changing the name.