Consider law to deal with derogatory remarks against disabled: SC to Centre

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to consider introducing a law to make derogatory remarks ridiculing persons with disabilities (PwDs) and rare genetic disorders a penal offence on the lines of the SC-ST Act.

“Why can’t you bring a stringent law on the lines of the SC-ST Act, 1989, which criminalises casteist remarks — there is punishment if you demean them?” a Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

“Humour cannot be at the cost of someone’s dignity,” Mehta told the Bench while hearing a petition filed by SMA Cure Foundation, which works for individuals affected by rare spinal muscular atrophy disease, flagging jokes made by “India’s Got Latent” host Samay Raina and other social media influencers, Vipun Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.

It asked them to be careful about their conduct in future.

The Bench directed the comedians to hold two programmes/shows per month about the success stories of PwDs to generate funds for treatment of disabled persons, especially those suffering from SMA.

“It’s part of social penalty and they’re spared of other punitive measures,” it said, adding they have been asked to do so as reparation for their insensitive jokes on the disabled.

The Bench refused to consider the plea for recall of the direction, saying, “This is a social burden we are placing on you.”

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, criminalises casteist slur, acts of discrimination, humiliation and violence against the members of the SC/ST community, making such offences non-bailable.

The Bench also emphasised the need for a “neutral, independent and autonomous” body to regulate obscene, offensive or illegal content on online platforms.

As the Bench was informed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting that certain guidelines were under consideration, it asked the ministry to put the guidelines in public domain for discussion and listed the matter for hearing after four weeks.