"Show Your Apology On Your Channels": Supreme Court To Comedians

When you are commercialising speech, you cannot hurt the sentiments of a community, the Supreme Court said today, pulling up Samay Raina and several other comics on jokes mocking persons with disabilities.

The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a petition by Cure SMA Foundation of India, which supports patients and families affected by spinal muscular atrophy. The petition had flagged jokes mocking people with disabilities. The comics who were called out included Samay Raina, Vipun Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.

The petition was clubbed with the cases linked to India's Got Latent controversy, in which YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia was charged.

Appearing for the Foundation, Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh said "good sense has prevailed" and all comics have apologised.

The court pulled up Samay Raina on a counter affidavit filed with the apology and noted, "Respondent No 6 (Raina) tried to portray himself as very innocent and then apologised."

Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, said the Centre will take some time to lay down guidelines for comics and influencers. "There cannot be a complete gag," he said.

The bench said the guidelines must not be a reaction to one incident. "Future challenges have to be kept in mind. It has to be broad-based. We would like to have opinion of domain experts also," Justice Kant said.

When Senior Advocate Singh said the top court sent a strong message, Justice Kant replied, "Apology is one thing... but is it required that a Foundation will have to come every time to Court for this? What if some individual is victimised?"

Weighing in, Justice Bagchi said, "Humour is a part of life and we can take jokes on us. But when you start making fun of others, there is a breach of sensitivity. India is a diverse country with so many communities, and these are so-called influencers of today... when you are commercialising speech, you cannot use a community and hurt their sentiments."

Justice Kant added, "There should be a balance of rights and duties."

The lawyer appearing for the comics said, "We have tendered an unconditional apology. The respondents are present as per last order." Samay Raina and the other comics named in the case were in court today.

The bench warned them of penalty, and said, "Today it's about disabled, next time it can be women, senior citizens, children... where will this end?" Justice Kant asked.

Senior Advocate Singh told the bench that instead of imposing penalty on the comics, they could be asked to contribute to activities that benefit the cause of disability and patients of rare diseases. "Let them use their influence to take forward this issue. That would be the best apology," she said. The comics agreed.

The court said in its order that the comics shall post an apology on their YouTube channel and inform the court about the penalty they are willing to bear.