NEW DELHI: Stating that commercial and prohibited speeches are not covered under the fundamental right, the Supreme Court on Monday asked five social media influencers, including “India’s Got Latent” host Samay Raina, to display their unconditional apology in their podcasts or shows for ridiculing persons with disabilities and rare genetic disorders.
The Supreme Court’s stringent order to five social media influencers or comedians — Samay Raina being the most prominent of them — gains significance in view of reports that many of the influencers use their shows on the social media for commercial purposes or to promote their vested interests.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said the degree of repentance should be higher than the degree of offending and made it clear that the court would consider imposing a penalty on the influencers for offending disabled persons by social media influencers at a later stage.
“It is like purging contempt,” Justice Kant said while asking the influencers to apprise the court on how much penalty they were willing to pay, which in turn can be utilised in the treatment of people suffering from rare genetic disorders like spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Continued on P4