The FIRs have been registered against Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakar and Nishant Jagdsish Tanwar in Mumbai and Guwahati for allegedly making insensitive remarks about persons with disabilities.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued summons against comedian Samay Raina and four other social media influencers to appear before the court for allegedly making insensitive remarks about persons with disabilities. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh asked the Mumbai Commissioner of Police to serve notice to the five influencers after a NGO accused them of cracking jokes on people with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).
While hearing the case, the two-judge bench asserted that, “Hate speech, any speech which is meant to demean another, this kind of freedom, if there, we will curtail it. We know how to.” They also stated that strict legal action will be rendered if the accused fail to mark their presence in the court.
The NGO, Cure SMA Foundation of India had also filed a petition seeking rules for how people who are disabled or possess rare diseases are spoken about on social media. The court acknowledged the measures to be necessary and also discussed possible guidelines.
The FIRs have been registered against Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakar and Nishant Jagdsish Tanwar in Mumbai and Guwahati.
While acknowledging the arguments of senior lawyer Aparajita Singh, representing the NGO, the bench stated that, "This is very, very damaging and demoralising. There are statutes which 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."
The bench has also asked for the assistance of the Attorney General of India in the matter.