The Supreme Court on Thursday directed stand-up comedian and content creator Samay Raina and four other comedians to organise at least two fundraising events every month to contribute to a corpus meant for the treatment of persons with disabilities, including those suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).
According to Bar and Bench, the order was passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, which heard a plea filed by the Cure SMA India Foundation, seeking action against online content that violates the dignity of persons with disabilities.
The bench noted that Raina and other comedians, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar (Sonali Aditya Desai) and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar, had volunteered to hold such events in compliance with earlier directions of the Court.
They also sought permission to highlight the “success stories" of differently-abled individuals as part of their outreach.
Referring to these submissions, the court said it was for the comedians to persuade persons with disabilities to join them on their platforms for awareness and fundraising efforts.
“We leave it to respondents 6 to 10 to persuade and invite the specially abled persons on their platforms to promote the cause of generating funds to provide timely treatment to the specially abled, including those suffering from SMA," the bench said.
“We are confident that if respondent 6 to 10 show sincerity about showing their achievements, they will also come on the platform for wider publicity of their cause," it said.
The court added that it expected such outreach efforts to begin immediately.
“We hope and expect that such few memorable events will take place before we hear the matter on the next date. Let such two programs be held twice a month," it added.
The directions come against the backdrop of allegations that the comedians made insensitive remarks about disability and the immense financial burden faced by SMA patients.
During his show ‘India’s Got Latent’, Raina had referred to a two-month-old SMA patient requiring a Rs 16-crore injection, the cost of the one-time gene therapy Zolgensma, and followed it with a joke suggesting how a mother might view her husband if such an amount suddenly appeared in her bank account.
