SC asks Samay Raina, 4 other to apologise for insensitive jokes on disabilities

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on stand-up comedian Samay Raina for allegedly making insensitive remarks about people with disability.

The court directed Raina and four other comedians—Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Nishant Jagdish Tanwar, and Sonali Thakkar (aka Sonali Aditya Desai)—to issue an unconditional apology on their YouTube channels and other platforms.

On May 5, the bench had summoned the comedians to appear before it or face coercive action after a plea alleged that they ridiculed persons suffering from SMA, a rare disorder, as well as those suffering from other disabilities on their show. The petition against the influencers was filed by the M/s Cure SMA Foundation of India, citing insensitive jokes made by Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar, and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.

“The petitioner is concerned by certain live and pre-recorded event videos of these individuals, due to their offensive, denigrating and dehumanising representation of persons with disabilities,” the petition said.

“These videos shed light on the widespread irresponsible, insensitive and violate dissemination of such online content that contravenes the rights of the persons with disability under Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, propels offensive stereotypes and misguided portrayals against them, and detrimentally impacts their societal participation, and fosters insensitivity and inhumanity against them, and as such falls within the reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2),” said the petition.

This is not the first time Raina has received a reprimand from the Supreme Court for his remarks. Earlier this year, Samay, along with Apoorva Mukhija, Ashish Chanchlani, and Ranveer Allahbadia, was named in an FIR for allegedly promoting obscene content on their show. (ANI)