The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered comedian and YouTuber Samay Raina along with three other comedians to invite disabled people who have inspirational success stories to appear on shows hosted on their platforms to raise funds for timely and effective treatment of disabled people, according to ANI.
This comes after the Cure SMA Foundation applied for directions against comedians who made insensitive remarks towards disabled people.
According to LiveLaw, the plea read: “We are a charitable foundation, run by the parents of the disabled…in one of Samaya Raina’s programs, children were mocked….my lords can see.”
Chief Justice of India Surya Kant noted that on the issue raised by CURE SMA, Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh submitted a brief detailing the stories of successful individuals who were the subject of inappropriate YouTube shows that could have been avoided by some creators.
“Social, not criminal, burden”
Surya Kant said it was rightly understood that a special fund should be set up by the concerned ministry and that the fund could be publicized to encourage corporates to contribute generously for the treatment of disabled persons, including those affected by SMA.
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The CJI said the court hoped that several such memorable events would take place before the matter was heard further. He explained that the court places a social responsibility on comedians, not a criminal one, noting that they are well-established figures in society.
“We hope and expect that few such memorable events will happen before we hear the matter. It is a social burden that we are placing on you (comedians), not a criminal burden. You are all well placed in the society. If you have become too popular, share it with others,” ANI quoted CJI Kanta as saying.
Kant said, “Private respondents have proposed to hold at least 2 events a month to raise funds, they have also sought permission from this court to invite persons whose success stories have been recorded… we leave it to the respondents to follow up and invite specially abled persons for shows to generate funds for the specially-abled persons.
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The court’s involvement stemmed from several cases where comedy platforms allegedly contained defamatory comments. The key trigger came in the sixth episode of India’s Got Latent, where contestant Santosh Patra made jokes that humiliated people with disabilities, states the Statesman report.
The situation escalated when the judges initially approved the remarks, leading to widespread backlash online. Another controversial contestant was Banti Banerjee who appeared and won in the tenth episode. Her act contained jokes that many viewers found offensive, including remarks about celebrity mental health as well as personal attacks on public figures.
In one segment, Banerjee commented on actress Deepika Padukone’s experiences with motherhood and her past struggle with depression.
She said: “Now he knows what depression really looks like. Real depression is when your sleep is interrupted and your child wakes up in the middle of the night at 3am and the child wants to eat, poop or play, in whatever order.”
Banerjee later admitted that she deliberately mocked Padukone’s depression after her breakup. Even host Samay Raina responded to the controversy by commenting on Instagram, saying, “To all the outragers on Twitter, one request: Could you please outrage in my YouTube comments section so I can at least get some ad revenue?
