The Supreme Court has asked comedian and YouTuber Samay Raina to invite such disabled people on his platform who have achieved success in some field. This will send a positive message to the society that the amount collected from such a program should be used for the treatment of disabled persons. The court has also given similar instructions to 4 more comedians – Vipul Goyal, Balraj Ghai, Sonali Thakkar and Nishant Tanwar.
In a petition filed in the court, it was complained that these people had organized programs making fun of the disabled. This petition was filed by Cure SMA Foundation, an organization fighting for people suffering from a serious disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. While hearing the case, the court had said that freedom of expression is not a license to hurt someone’s dignity and insulting the weaker sections in the name of humor cannot be accepted.
In the last two hearings, the court had personally summoned all the comedians and all of them had expressed regret for their actions. Now the court has asked them to give a good message to the society. In the hearing held on Wednesday, November 27, the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that Samay Raina and other comedians have accepted their mistake. The court also does not want to take punitive action against them, but this apology should always be in proportion to the insult.
The court has said that all these comedians should invite specially abled people on their platforms and present their success stories and such programs should be organized twice every month. This will help raise funds for the expenses of disabled people, especially those suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).
The next hearing of the case will be after 4 weeks. The Chief Justice expressed hope that some memorable programs will definitely be organized before the next hearing. The Court suggested the Central Government to consider bringing a special law for the disabled like the law that protects the Scheduled Castes and Tribes from insults and harassment.