• Source:JND
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The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on comedians for jokes mocking persons with disabilities (PwDs) asking the “so-called” influencers to apologise on their social media accounts for the same. The top court asked five comics, including Samay Raina, to publish their apology on their YouTube pages and other social media handles for the insensitive jokes.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a petition filed by SMA Cure Foundation flagging the jokes made by Samay Raina, Vipun Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar aka Sonali Aditya Desai and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar, Live Law reported. The foundation was represented by Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh.

The plea was listed with the cases of Ranveer Allahabadia and Ashish Chanchlani. They sought clubbing of FIRs against them at different places in connection with India’s Got Latent .

“Good sense has prevailed,” senior advocate Aparajita Singh said. She added that the comics have apologised.

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“Apology you tendered before the court, give the same before your social media too," Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi told the comedians.

Justice Bagchi further observed that the influencers are “commercialising speech" and the community should not be utilised to hurt the sentiments of others.

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"Humor is well taken and is a part of life. We laugh at ourselves. But when we start laughing at others and create a breach of sensibility...on a community plane, when humor is generated, it becomes problematic. And this is what so-called influencers of today should bear in mind. They are commercializing speech. The community at large should not be utilized to hurt the sentiments of certain sections. It's not only freedom of speech, it's commercial speech," Justice Bagchi further remarked, as quoted by Live Law.

The bench will decide on the penalty to be paid by the comedians during the next hearing. "The degree of repentance should be higher than the degree of offending, it's like purging contempt,"Justice Kant said.