SC to hear petition seeking ban on websites with jokes on Sikhs after eight weeks

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would hear after eight weeks a petition seeking a direction to ban websites that display jokes projecting members of the Sikh community in poor light.

“It is an important matter,” a Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Viswanathan said after petitioner-in-person Harvinder Chowdhury said she would consolidate her own suggestions as also those made by other parties and file a compilation.

”You prepare a small compilation so that it becomes easier to go through it…You have already got the suggestions. You can consolidate them,” the Bench told her and posted the petition for hearing after eight weeks.

Chowdhury highlighted the grievances of Sikh women—allegedly ridiculed for their attire – and complained that Sikh children were also bullied in schools. Citing an incident wherein a Sikh boy allegedly died by suicide owing to bullying in school, she also raised the issue of virtual bullying.

In October 2015, the top court agreed to hear the matter. Alleging that around 5,000 websites displayed jokes on Sikhs projecting them in poor light, the petitioner had demanded a ban on such websites, saying the jokes violated the fundamental right to live with dignity.

Earlier, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) had also urged the top court to include “racial slurs” and “racial profiling” in the definition of ragging—which has been banned in educational institutions in India – in order to prevent victimization of Sikh students.