Samay Raina, other influencers appear in SC over remarks 'ridiculing' disabled

Five social media influencers, including "India's Got Latent" host Samay Raina, on Tuesday appeared before the Supreme Court in a case seeking action against them for ridiculing persons suffering from disabilities.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi recorded their presence and directed them to file their replies to the petition.

They are accused of poking fun at the disabled and those suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and blindness.

They were directed to again appear in-person on the next hearing.

The top court, however, allowed influencer Sonali Thakkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai to appear virtually owing to some physical condition.

The social media influencers were asked to file their replies within two weeks beyond which they won't get any extension.

Besides, their absence on the next date of hearing will be viewed seriously, the court said.

The top court asked Attorney General R Venkataramani, representing the Centre, to prepare social media guidelines while balancing the freedom of speech and expression and the rights and duties of the others.

Venkataramani sought time to assist the court on the issue and said the enforceability of guidelines would require a detailed consideration.

The court said the freedom of one person should not violate the rights of others, underlining enforceability of the guidelines as the most difficult part.

"There are many free advisors in the market. Ignore them. The guidelines should be in conformity with constitutional principles balancing freedom and the rights and duties of a person. Then we will examine it. We will have open debate on such guidelines. Let all members of the bar and stakeholders including the so-called stakeholders also come and give their viewpoints," Justice Kant said.

Article 19, the judge said, deals with freedom of speech and expression and cannot overpower Article 21 of the Constitution, which provides right to life and liberty.

The court mulled examining individual misconduct brought under scrutiny and said the petitioner NGO Cure SMA Foundation of India had raised a serious issue.

"We need to understand that the right to dignity also emanates from the right which someone else is claiming. Article 19 of the Constitution," the judge said, "can't overpower Article 21. Suppose a race takes place between Article 19 and 21, Article 21 has to trump Article 19".

Justice Kant went on to tell senior advocate Aprajita Singh, appearing for the NGO, that the court was doing it for posterity and the parties must ensure not a single word of the guidelines were misused.

"What we are doing is for posterity. You have to ensure that not a single word is misused by anyone. You have to ensure balance. We have to protect citizens' rights. A framework must be there that the dignity of anyone is not violated," the bench said.

On May 5, the top court directed the five social media influencers to appear before it or face coercive action after a plea alleged that they ridiculed persons suffering from SMA, a rare disorder, and also those suffering from other disabilities on their show.

Besides Raina, the apex court had issued notice to four other influencers Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.

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.

No one, the apex court said, 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.

It asked Mumbai police commissioner to serve notice on the five influencers to ensure their presence in the court, failing which coercive action will be taken.

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.