New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the presence of five social media influencer following a plea of an NGO, which alleged ridiculing of a disabled person with a rare disorder Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Stand-up comedian and internet personality Samay Raina was a prominent name among the five influencers asked to be present in the apex court.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar directed the Mumbai Commisioner of Police to serve notice on the five influencers, asking them to ensure their presence in the court. A failure to this would potentially lead to a coercive action against them, as reported by news agency PTI.
The bench observed that the influencers mocking disabled people as ‘damaging’ and demoralising’, indicating that punitive action was required to prevent similar happenings going forward.
“This is very, very damaging and demoralising. There are statutes which try to bring these people into the mainstream, and with one incident, the entire effort goes. You should think of some remedial and punitive action within the law,” the bench told senior advocate Aprajita Singh, appearing for the NGO.
The bench pointed that no one can be permitted to demean anyone under the popular notion of right to freedom of speech and expression, as reported by news agency PTI.
The bench has also looked for the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani on the PIL of NGO ‘Cure SMA Foundation of India’ for direction on regulating social media content concerning disabled people with rare disorder.
The NGO had referred to the deficiencies in the existing legal framework and urged the bench to formulate guidelines on online content.
The summons of the five social media influencers comes months after the controversy in the India’s Got Latent show, which was hosted by Samay Raina. All the episodes of the show have been deleted from YouTube.
