SC asks Samay Raina, other influencers to appear over alleged remarks 'ridiculing' disabled
New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Monday directed five social media influencers, including "India's Got Latent" host Samay Raina, to appear before it or face coercive action after a plea alleged that they ridiculed persons having a rare disorder Spinal Muscular Atrophy and those suffering from disability on their show.
The court termed the influencers' conduct as "damaging" and "demoralising" and said some serious remedial and punitive action was needed so that these things don't happen again.
Observing that the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression is not absolute, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said no one can be allowed to demean anybody under the garb of the right and mulled framing guidelines on social media content concerning the disabled and people with rare disorders.
The bench asked the Mumbai Commissioner of Police to serve notice on the five influencers to ensure their presence in the court, failing which coercive action will be taken.
Justice Surya Kant said that though after this order a lot of people raising the issue of fundamental rights will start writing articles but the court knows how to deal with these issues.
Earlier this year, Raina was booked by Maharashtra and Assam police over derogatory comments on his YouTube show 'India's Got Latent' along with podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia.
On February 18, the top court granted interim protection from arrest to Allahbadia while calling his comments "vulgar" and saying he had "dirty mind" which put society to shame. Aside from Allahbadia and Raina, others named in the case in Assam are comics Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija.
The apex court order on Monday came on a plea of an NGO alleging that the influencers have ridiculed persons having a rare disorder SMA and those suffering from disability on their show.
"The Commissioner of Police, Mumbai is directed to serve notice on respondent nos.6 to 10 and ensure their presence in court on the next date of hearing, failing which coercive steps will be taken against them to secure their presence," the bench ordered.
The bench also sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani on the PIL of NGO 'Cure SMA Foundation of India' for direction on regulating social media content concerning disabled people and persons with rare disorders.
"Having regard to the sensitivity and importance of the issue raised by the petitioner-Foundation, we request the learned Attorney General for India to assist this Court in the matter," it said.
"This is very, very damaging and demoralising. There are statutes that try to bring these people into the mainstream, and with one incident, the entire effort goes.
"You should think of some remedial and punitive action within the law against those who have indulged in such acts," the bench told senior advocate Aprajita Singh, appearing for the NGO.
Singh said that in her view this is a case of hate speech, which cannot be allowed under the Constitution.
Besides Raina, the bench issued notice to four other influencers Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.
The bench also arrayed the Maharashtra government as a party in the matter and issued notice to it. The top court sought their responses by July 15.
The NGO had referred to the deficiencies in the existing legal framework and urged the bench to formulate guidelines on online content.
"The petitioner seeks to bring to the notice of this court the broadcast of certain online content, media and programmes that are derogatory, offensive, denigrating, ableist or belittling to the persons with disability, or their diseases, or their treatment options," it said.
The NGO said that it was also aggrieved by the lack of any explicit statutory guidelines to sufficiently–regulate the broadcast of such online content which violates the right to life and dignity of persons with disabilities while transgressing the qualified right of free speech and expression.
"The absence of such explicit provisions qua persons with disability gives rise to a legislative gap since it fails to align with the anti-discrimination and dignity-affirming objectives of the Constitution as well as the RPwD Act, thus being violative of Article 14 and 21," it said.
It said there is also no sufficient positive obligation on both the government and private actors to adopt a unique standard of representation of persons with disability in the online domain.
"Despite the aforesaid constitutional mandates, there has been a rampant abuse of the online media platforms by various individuals and classes, that has resulted in the systematic objectification of persons with disability – thereby, fundamentally undermining their dignity, agency, and their inalienable right to be represented with respect," it said.
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