On Monday, the
Supreme Court came down strongly during a hearing related to jokes made about disabled people in a stand-up comedy show. The court criticised comedians like Samay Raina and Ranveer Allahbadia for making insensitive remarks and asked them to publicly apologise. The court directed them to post a video apology on their social media platforms, saying that jokes made at the expense of disabled individuals were unacceptable. The bench, led by Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that making money by cracking such jokes is not acceptable.
"You must post the same apology you gave in court on your social media accounts," the judges told the comedians. The court also reminded him of a previous controversy where he had made a disrespectful comment about his parents' personal life on Samay Raina’s YouTube show. That matter had also reached the Women’s Commission and eventually the Supreme Court. He had issued an apology through a video back then too.
The Supreme Court also criticised the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, instructing it to come up with clear guidelines on such content.
"Humor 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," the bench said, as quoted by LiveLaw.
The court also said the question of penalty or costs would be decided later. During the hearing, Justice Kant remarked, “There should be a balance of rights and duties”.
This entire case was brought to the Supreme Court through a petition filed by the SMA Cure Foundation, which had accused comedians including Samay Raina, Vipun Goyal, Balraj Paramjit Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar, and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar of making offensive jokes about people with disabilities.
The court concluding by saying that making money by hurting others through jokes cannot be accepted. Influencers and comedians must be more responsible with their words, especially when they reach millions of people.