What did Samay Raina say on his show that Supreme Court termed ‘insensitive’?
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What did Samay Raina say on his show that Supreme Court termed ‘insensitive’?
The Supreme Court reprimanded five social media influencers, including Samay Raina, describing their remarks on India’s Got Latent as “insensitive jokes” The five influencers are accused of making fun of individuals with disabilities, particularly those with SMA and visual impairments. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi instructed the Centre to formulate guidelines to curb speeches that offend or mock disabled persons, women, children, and senior citizens. All were present in court except Sonali Thakkar, who was exempted from physically appearing, provided she aired an unconditional apology on her programme.
During the show, Samay Raina referred to a charity case involving a two-month-old baby, commenting that “something extraordinary” had occurred, as the infant allegedly required a ₹16 crore injection. Turning to a woman in the audience, he added, “Ma’am, imagine you were that mother and suddenly ₹16 crore appeared in your bank account… with a two-month-old baby… wouldn’t you at least glance at your husband and think… ‘Hmmm, inflation is rising’?”
SC slams four other influencers
The petition against the influencers was filed by the CURE SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) Foundation of India, citing insensitive jokes made by Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjit Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar, and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which instructed the Centre to formulate guidelines to curb speeches that offend or mock disabled persons, women, children, and senior citizens, observed that freedom of speech and expression does not extend to commercial content that hurts the sentiments of other communities.
The court stated it would consider imposing penalties on social media influencers, including Raina, for comments offending disabled persons at a later stage.
The five influencers are accused of making fun of individuals with disabilities, particularly those with SMA and visual impairments.
All were present in court except Sonali Thakkar (also known as Sonali Aditya Desai), who was exempted from physically appearing, provided she aired an unconditional apology on her programme.
The bench told attorney general R Venkataramani that any social media guidelines should not be drafted in haste in response to a single incident but should be based on broad parameters and include input from all stakeholders.
The Supreme Court also criticised Samay Raina for his affidavit, stating that he initially tried to justify his conduct and portray himself as innocent.
On July 15, the top court had directed the five influencers, including Raina, to appear before it in a case seeking action against them for ridiculing persons with disabilities.