HC refuses to stay coercive action against Yuvika Chaudhary for using casteist slur

Legal troubles mounted for Bollywood actress Yuvika Chaudhary over her alleged use of a 'casteist slur' on social media. On Friday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed a plea seeking a stay in the case filed against her over the use of the offensive word. 

The Punjab and Haryana High Court was hearing a plea filed by Chaudhary's lawyer Ruchi Shekhari which sought a stay order on 'coercive action' by the police. Yuvika Chaudhary had allegedly used a casteist slur in a video on her YouTube channel which featured her husband, Prince Narula back in May 2021.

The plea cited the similar 'stay' in the cases of Yuvraj Singh and Munmun Dutta, who had used the casteist slur in the past and highlighted that the complainant Rajat Kalsan is the same person who filed cases against others. Yuvika Chaudhary's lawyer sought a stay on the investigation in the case against her on similar lines of Yuvraj Singh. 

However, the bench headed by Justice Amol Ratan Singh highlighted that both were separate cases. He stated that in the case of Yuvika Chaudhary, the court would not pass a stay order on the investigation of the police or possible coercive action by them against the Bollywood actress.

Yuvika Chaudhary controversy 

A controversy had erupted over a video posted by Yuvika Chaudhary on her Youtube channel in May. In the video, the Om Shanti Om actor was in a midst of a grooming session with Prince when she commented on her looks and how she had not dressed well for the salon. Thereafter, she used the term "bh*gi", to refer to her ill-mannered way of dressing in the video, the same lower-cast slur which had landed Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma actor Munmun Dutta into trouble. The slur is deeply offensive towards India's scheduled castes and has long been associated with propagating the stereotypes surrounding the cleaning community.

Yuvika's use of the term left netizens enraged and soon they began to demand her arrest. Hours after '#Arrest Yuvika Chaudhry' started to trend on Twitter, Yuvika Chaudhry issued an apology on her social media handles claiming that she did not know what the word had meant.