New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the presence of five social media influencers, including “potential” host Samay Raina, who begged NGOs for pleading, claiming they laughed at people suffering from rare spinal muscle atrophy (SMA) during the show.
Judges of Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh asked the Mumbai Police Commissioner to send notices to five influencers to ensure their presence in the court, but failed to take any mandatory action.
The bench also sought assistance from Attorney General R Venkataramani in the PIL of the NGO “The Treatment SMA Foundation for India” to guide the regulation of social media content on people with disabilities and patients with rare diseases.
The bench called influential people mocking people for being “harmful” and “frustrated” and said some serious remedial and punitive actions are needed to prevent these things from happening again.
The bench told senior defense attorney Aprajita Singh that it was some remedial and punitive action in the law.
The bench said the fundamental right to observe freedom of expression and freedom of expression is not absolute, so no one can demean anyone under the costume of rights and considers framework guidelines on social media content for people with disabilities and rare diseases.
NGOs have mentioned flaws in the existing legal framework and urged the bench to develop guidelines on online content.
