Madras High Court allows real estate firm to serve contempt notice on Felix Gerald at T.N. Minorities Commission office

The Madras High Court on Friday (September 11, 2026) permitted real estate firm G-Square Realtors Private Limited to serve a suo motu contempt of court notice on Tamil Nadu Minorities Commission chairman Felix Gerald at the office of the commission in Chennai.

Justice K. Kumaresh Babu passed the order pursuant to a memo filed by the real estate firm’s counsel seeking permission to serve the notice at the commission’s office, as Mr. Gerald was appointed the chairman of the commission after the initiation of the contempt proceedings.

The judge ordered that the court notice and private notice shall be served at the office of the minorities commission, as the previous notices issued to a particular residential address at Nungambakkam in Chennai were returned with an endorsement that no such person was available there.

During the hearing on Friday (September 11, 2026), G-Square’s counsel levelled certain accusations against YouTuber A. Shankar alias ‘Savukku’ Shankar, against whom the real estate firm had filed the contempt of court petition in 2024, before the judge suo motu initiated the proceedings against Mr. Gerald as well, in April 2026.

The counsel claimed Mr. Shankar was continuing to flout a 2023 court order, which required him to send an e-mail to the real estate firm before making a public statement against it, wait for 72 hours to receive a reply, and then make the statement along with the reply, if any was received in response to his e-mail.

The advocate complained that the YouTuber was continuing to make public statements in violation of the court order. However, since the counsel for Mr. Shankar reported that he would not be representing the YouTuber anymore, the judge directed the Registry to delete the name of the counsel from the cause list and print the name of Mr. Shankar instead.

What is the case about?

In 2022, G-Square had filed a civil suit demanding damages of ₹1 crore, along with interest at the rate of 12% from the date of filing of the suit until its realisation, from the YouTuber for having reportedly made certain defamatory allegations against it.

Along with the civil suit, the plaintiff had also filed an application seeking an interim injunction restraining Mr. Shankar, his agents, employees, or anyone – whether under him or through him – from making, printing, writing, posting, or publishing any defamatory allegations or slanderous material against the real estate company.

On September 8, 2022, Justice C.V. Karthikeyan granted the interim injunction after being convinced that the alleged defamatory statements made by Mr. Shankar would prima facie affect the normal course of business of the realtor and that they did not appear to be based on facts.

Thereafter, in 2023, the YouTuber filed an application to vacate the interim injunction. Justice Babu disposed of that application on June 26, 2023, by making certain modifications to the 2022 order. The judge insisted that Mr. Shankar put the real estate company on notice before making any public statements against it.

Subsequently, the firm filed the present contempt petition in 2024 by referring to an interview given by Mr. Shankar to the RedPix YouTube channel run by Mr. Gerald. After watching the interview, the judge felt Mr. Gerald also appeared to have committed contempt of court and ordered notice to him too.