The Supreme Court on Friday initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Chandigarh-based journalist and YouTuber Ajay Shukla for his "scandalous", defamatory and contemptuous remarks against a few apex court judges in a video uploaded on his channel.

A bench comprising Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and AS Chandurkar also directed that the offending video be immediately taken down and restrained the YouTube channel from republishing it or any content similar to it.

It also issued a notice to Shukla, the editor-in-chief of Varprad Media.