THE DISABLED too DESERVE DIGNITY : SUPREME COURT

Joseph Maliakan

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday 27 November 2025 suggested the Union government  make a law to proect the dignity of of the DISABLED. Derogatory remarks against persons with disabilities and rare genetic disorders should be made a punishable offence on the lines of  the Scheduled Caste – Scheduled Tribes ( Prevention of Atrocities  ) Act., 1989, a Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said.

The SC-ST Act crminalises casteist slur, acts of discrimination , humiliation, and violence against the members of the SCs and STs.The offences under the Act are non-bailable. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta , appearing for the Union government agreed with the suggestion and said that humour cannot be at the cost of some one’s dignity especially of the disabled and the disadvantaged in the society.

The Supreme Court made the observation on a petition filed by M/s SMA Cure  India Foundation , which works for persons affected by spinal Muscular  Atrophy  ( SMA ) disease. The petition was filed following jokes made by ” India’s Got Latent” host Samay Raina and other social media influencers ,Vipin Goel, Balraj Paramjit Singh gai, Sonali Thakkar and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar. The Court ordered all these comedy hosts to host at least two fundraising events each month to benefit persons with disabilities. It urged the comedians to invite persons with disabilities in their programmes and share their success stories to raise awareness and funds.

The comedians,  Chief Justice Surya Kant said must begin this initiative before the court hears the matter again. ” We hope and expect that a few memorable events will take place before our next hearing. This is a social responsibility we are placing on you  , not a penal one . You are all respected members of the society .If you have gained significant popularity, then use that influence to benefit others .” he added.

Raina’s joke about a two month old SMA child needing a Rs.16 crore gene therapy injection drew severe criticism as it trivialised the plight of patients and their families efforts at public fund raising.

Such content the Cure SMA India Foundation argued violated fundamental rights , including the right to dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. And in August 2025 the Supreme Court directed these comedians to issue unconditional.public apologies on social media platforms for mocking persons with disabilities and threatened to penalise them in case of non-compliance.The comedians submitted affidavits showing their willingness to engage in fund raising and awareness raising activities for the welfare of the disabled.

Representing the Cure CMA India Foundation,  Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh said that dignity was more important than money in the case of the disabled : ” Samay Raina claims to have donated Rs.2.50 lakh , but our concern is with the dignity of the disabled persons not e money”

She  said many children suffering from SMA have achieved great accomplishments in their lives. The parents of SMA patients are managing funds through crowdfunding and the Foundation refused accept the Rs.2.5 lakh donation by Raina because the issue was not of money but that of dignity.

Aparajita Singh further said that of the children who suffered from SMA is working at Microsoft, another is studying at Michigan State University, one is a classical singer, another is an Assamese writer and publisher and yet another is pursuing a doctorate in Bioinformatics .The parents of these children managed funds for their treatment through crowdfunding. When people like Raina make humiliating jokes about such kids , raising funds for them becomes difficult , Aparijita said. There was a need for a dedicated platform which can raise Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR  ) funds for treatment of children suffering from rare complicated diseases.

In this context the CJI directed the comedians to be more careful about their conduct in future The Chief Justice also said that he was aware of the comments made mocking even the Supreme Court of India by Raina in Canda !

At the end of the arguments the Court said ” As regards to the issues raised by cure SMA India Foundation , the learned senior Counsel Ms.Aparajita Singhhas handed over a brief notedepictingthe success stories of those about whom undesirable and avoidable YouvTube shows were held by some of the private respondents . During the course of the hearing it has been rightly suggested that thereshould be a dedicated fund /corpus that may be created bythe concerned Ministry , or if it is already created , it can be given wide publicity, inviting corporate entities and individuals to generously donate in that fund which is exclusively meant forthe treatment of the speciallyabled persons , like those suffering from SMA.

In this regard the order said that ” We leave it to the the respondents 6 to 10 to persuade and inite the specially abled persons on their platforms to promote the cause of generating funds to provide timely and quality treatment to the specially abled like thisesuffering from SMA.

” We are quite sure that if respondents no 6 to 10 are repentent and show their sincerity and commitment to the case , the specially abled persons who have made landmark achivements in life will also accept to come on the platforms for the purpose of wideg publicity in the cause.”

Ends….