NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed five social media influencers, including comedian and India's Got Latent host Samay Raina, to issue a public, unconditional apology on their respective platforms for mocking individuals with disabilities and rare genetic disorders, PTI reported.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi stressed that freedom of speech does not extend to commercial content that targets or offends marginalized communities.
"Freedom of expression must be exercised responsibly," the court observed, adding that social media content cannot come at the cost of human dignity.
The influencers are accused of ridiculing persons affected by Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), visual impairments, and other disabilities during their podcast episodes and online content.
"It is like purging contempt," Justice Kant said while asking the influencers to apprise the court on how much penalty they were willing to pay, which in turn can be utilised in the treatment of people suffering from rare genetic disorders like spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
The court also slammed Raina's affidavit, noting that it initially attempted to justify his actions rather than express genuine remorse. The bench warned that penalties may be considered against the accused at a later stage.
The court asked Attorney General R. Venkataramani to assist in formulating comprehensive guidelines to regulate offensive speech on social media, particularly content targeting persons with disabilities, women, children, and the elderly.
“Guidelines for social media regulations shouldn’t be knee jerk reaction but based on broad parameters having views of all stakeholders,” the SC said.
Venkataramani said the government was in process of formulating the guidelines but ruled out any "gag order".
Justice Kant agreed and said that was the reason behind the suggesting in the last hearing that draft guidelines will be shared in public domain for the views of all stakeholders.
"There should be some accountability. Today it is disabled people but tomorrow it can be women, children and senior citizens," Justice Kant added.
Besides Raina, the apex court previously issued notices to four other influencers Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.
Except Sonali Thakkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai, four influencers including Raina were present in the courtroom.
Justice Bagchi said the influencers should be more cautious while creating humour related to different communities especially when it pertains to "apartheid in the society".
Senior advocate Aprajita Singh, appearing for NGO Cure SMA Foundation of India, which has sought action against the influencers for their utterances against the disabled, said a better sense prevailed among the influencers, who tendered an unconditional apology.
She said the issue was not of the influencers alone and the Information Technology Rules and the Cinematograph Act mandate that persons with disabilities cannot be targeted.
While Justice Kant said there should be penal action under the rules which should be proportionate to the harm caused to the dignity of people, Singh suggested influencers to spread awareness on the rare genetic disorder and disabilities through their shows.
The matter was previously brought before the court on July 15, when it summoned the five influencers to explain their actions following widespread outrage over their remarks.
Samay Raina was booked by Maharashtra and Assam police over derogatory comments on his YouTube show "India's Got Latent" along with podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia.
On February 18, the top court granted interim protection from arrest to Allahbadia while calling his comments "vulgar" and saying he had "dirty mind" which put society to shame. Aside from Allahbadia and Raina, others named in the case in Assam are comics Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija.
(With inputs from PTI)