The North News
New Delhi, August 25
The Supreme Court on Monday directed five stand-up comedians and social media influencers to issue unconditional public apologies after allegedly mocking persons with disabilities in their online content. The court named Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Nishant Jagdish Tanwar and Sonali Thakkar, also known as Sonali Aditya Desai, as those required to apologise on their YouTube channels and podcasts.
“Be careful when you make fun of others,” the bench observed, warning that ridicule of disabled people today could tomorrow extend to women, children or senior citizens.
The order followed a petition filed by Cure SMA Foundation, which sought guidelines to safeguard the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities in relation to online broadcasting.
Earlier, on 5 May, the court had summoned the comedians to appear personally and explain their remarks, after taking strong exception to the content flagged in the petition.
