Samay Raina and four other influencers have been asked to apologise for insensitive jokes by the Supreme Court of India.
CURE SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) Foundation of India filed a petition against the influencers, in lieu of their insensitive jokes, which they said amounted to "hate speech."
"These videos shed light on the widespread irresponsible, insensitive and violate dissemination of such online content that contravenes the rights of the persons with disability under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, propels offensive stereotypes and misguided portrayals against them, and detrimentally impacts their societal participation, and fosters insensitivity and inhumanity against them, and as such falls within the reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2)," their petition said, as per sources.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi heard a petition filed by M/s SMA Cure Foundation, represented by Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh, highlighting allegedly insensitive jokes made by comedians Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar (a.k.a. Sonali Aditya Desai), and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar. The petition also urged the court to frame guidelines to prevent persons with disabilities (PwDs) from being mocked.
"The degree of repentance should be higher than the degree of offending, it's like purging contempt", Justice Kant said.
"Humour is well taken and is a part of life. We laugh at ourselves. But when we start laughing at others and create a breach of sensibility...on a community plane, when humor is generated, it becomes problematic. And this is what so-called influencers of today should bear in mind. They are commercializing speech. The community at large should not be utilized to hurt the sentiments of certain sections. It's not only freedom of speech, it's commercial speech," Justice Joymalya Bagachi said.
"Go apologize on your podcasts, etc. Then consider what Ms. Aparajita has suggested. Then tell us about cost/penalty you are willing to bear," Justice Surya Kant told the comedians.
The petitioner organisation submitted a number of jokes made by these famous influencers to exemplify what constituted insentivity towards those with disabilities.
During one such show, Samay Raina had referred to a charity drive for a two-month-old baby, who needed an injection priced at ₹16 crore for a rare disease.
He even asked a woman in the audience how she would react if she found that money in her bank account, implying greed for money might overlap her fight to save her child. People kept reiterating that it was "just a joke" in X comments, even though Apoorva Mukhija, who clapped back at Samay on 'India's got Latent' received hundreds of thousands of hate comments for the same.
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