New Delhi, 5 May

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the presence of five social media influencers, including ‘India's Got Latent’ host Samay Raina, on a plea of an NGO which alleged that they ridiculed persons with a rare disorder Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) on their show.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh asked the Mumbai Commissioner of Police to serve notice on the five influencers to ensure their presence in the court, failing which coercive action will be taken.

The bench also sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani on the PIL of NGO 'Cure SMA Foundation of India' for direction on regulating social media content concerning disabled people and persons with rare disorders.

The bench termed the influencers ridiculing such people as "damaging" and "demoralising" and said some serious remedial and punitive action was needed so that these things don't happen again.

"This is very, very damaging and demoralising. There are statutes which try to bring these people into the mainstream, and with one incident, the entire effort goes. You should think of some remedial and punitive action within the law," the bench told senior advocate Aprajita Singh, appearing for the NGO.

Observing that the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression is not absolute, the bench said no one can be allowed to demean anybody under the garb of the right and mulled framing guidelines on social media content concerning the disabled and people with rare disorders.

The NGO had referred to the deficiencies in the existing legal framework and urged the bench to formulate guidelines on online content.