Jokes on disabled violate right to dignity, says SC ahead of laying guidelines to rein in stand-ups

New Delhi, July 15 Insensitive jokes mocking disabled people violate their right to dignity, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday, indicating its intention to lay down guidelines on freedom of speech and expression for stand-ups.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that Article 19, which provides freedom of speech and expression, cannot overpower Article 21, which guarantees the right to dignity that emanates from the right to life and liberty.

“Article 21 must prevail if any competition takes place,” said the court, inviting suggestions from the public and bar for laying down a framework so that the dignity of no one is violated.

Attorney-General R. Venkataramani sought more time to assist the court on the aspect of guidelines.

The apex court, while hearing a petition filed by SMA Cure Foundation, also hinted at its desire to do something to regulate obscene content on social media.

Earlier, the petitioner Foundation had accused comedians Samay Raina, Nishant Jagdish Tanwar, Vipun Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai and Sonali Thakkar a.k.a. Sonali Aditya Desai of making insensitive jokes that mocked the disabled.

The five standup comedians were present in the court when it lashed out at “dirty, perverted" remarks of some of them. Except for Sonali, the others were told to be physically present at the next hearing. Sonali will join the proceedings online.

The court gave the comedians two weeks to file their responses to the petition filed by the Foundation.

The Apex court also dealt with two other petitions filed by social media content creators Ranveer Allahbadia and Ashish Chanchlani for clubbing FIRs lodged against them in connection with ‘India's Got Latent’ controversy.

Allahbadia, who made obscene and offensive remarks about parents in the comedy show ‘India's Got Latent’, faces several FIRs and legal complaints across the country.

The top court, in an interim order passed on February 18, had conditionally stayed his arrest with a direction to deposit his passport with Mumbai’s Thane Nodal Cyber Police and not leave the country without prior permission.

His confiscated passport was released in April, and one of the conditions required him to deposit his passport with Mumbai’s Thane Nodal Cyber Police and not leave the country without prior permission of the apex court.

--IANS

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