New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday emphasized the misuse of freedom of speech to make fun of people’s physical disability and called comedian Samay Raina and four other ‘affected’, as a pilot accused them of reducing the dignity of physically challenging people in their shows on online platforms.
On hearing the piler by ‘Cure SMA Foundation’, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh, the Mumbai Police Commissioner ordered Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balaj Paramjit Singh Gai, Sonali Tarkkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai and Nishant Jagdish Tanar to notice and ensured that they were next. “If they fail to appear, forced steps will be taken,” the bench warned.
The bench said that while Parliament and courts try to assimilate these sections of people in social mainstreams, such contingency yet condensed by affected on social media platforms, yet condemnable comments yet removes efforts that ridicule physical disability and remove disability.
Justice Kant said, “We want to curb such misuse of free speech,” the NGO asked to suggest the remedial as well as punitive measures. The bench sought assistance of Attorney General R Venkatarmani in framing Guidelines for digital broadcastersThe SC also issued notices to the Union Government and Electronics and Information Technology, Social Justice and Empowerment, as well as two Delhi -based regulators – news broadcasters and digital associations and Indian broadcasting and digital foundation.
The bench said that under the current law, punitive measures can be taken against those who ridiculed physical disability. Looking at the NGO, senior advocate Aparajita Singh said that she was not against an independent speech, but protects the dignity of every person, as the constitution provides proper sanctions.
