05-05-2025
Show up or...: Top court notice to Samay Raina, others over disability jokes
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to comedians Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, and three others in response to a petition alleging that they made insensitive comments mocking persons with disabilities.A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh directed Mumbai's Commissioner of Police to ensure the comedians appear before the court on the next date of hearing. The bench warned that "if they fail to appear, coercive steps will be taken."advertisementThe directive came after an intervention application by the Cure SMA Foundation of India. The other respondents named in the petition are Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar, and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.
"Think about persons who have made irresponsible remarks what remedial and punitive action should be justifiably be taken in law," the court observed, also requesting the Attorney General to assist in the matter, citing the sensitivity of the issues a previous hearing, the top court said it was "disturbed" by Raina's jokes mocking blind individuals and an infant with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) on his YouTube show, India's Got RAINA ACCUSED OF INSENSITIVITYIn its plea, Cure SMA Foundation criticised the YouTuber for making offensive remarks on his show, calling it one of "numerous instances (on) social media... in which persons with disabilities (and their issues) are objects of derision, pity, or public entertainment."advertisementIt further asserted that "free speech cannot carry with it the liberty to speak loosely on such serious issues and dismiss such statements as 'satire'."Lamenting the lack of sensitivity, the foundation stated that achieving "the highest degree of sensitivity and compassion" for individuals with SMA becomes a "mammoth task when certain individuals, like Samay Raina, host a comedy show and make insensitive commentaries on persons such with such condition and high cost of drugs and treatment options."The foundation's primary demand is for the court to direct the central government to include provisions in a proposed regulatory framework aimed at "regulating any derogatory, denigrating, ableist, and/or belittling content against persons with disability, their diseases, and their treatment options."It argued that such regulations should encompass content from online curated platforms, news and current affairs publishers, and self-styled influencers.
