The Supreme Court has imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on comedian Samay Raina. The court said that Raina has violated the court orders. This case relates to insensitive comments made to patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).
New Delhi [भारत]July 14 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on comedian and ‘India’s Got Latent’ host Samay Raina, saying he has “taken the court lightly” and blatantly violated court orders. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on him for not following its previous instructions.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh each on four others and gave them two weeks’ time to file compliance affidavits. Also warned that if they fail to comply, strict action will be taken against them.
The bench further said that Raina tried to justify the delay by claiming that a compliance affidavit was filed, whereas there was no such affidavit on record. The CJI said, “We have strong reasons to believe that Samay Raina has taken the court lightly and has flagrantly violated the orders of this court. This misconduct is further compounded when it is said that an affidavit has been filed when there is nothing on record to do so. Therefore, we impose a cost of Rs 3 lakh to be deposited within two weeks.”
The matter is related to insensitive comments
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by Cure SMA India Foundation, which accused Raina of making insensitive comments on the high cost of treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Raina is also accused of making insensitive comments about disabled people in the show.
During the hearing, the bench was told that Raina failed to follow through on the assurances given to the court that he would invite specially abled persons to his shows. Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, appearing for the SMA Foundation, said that despite earlier directions of the court, Raina had neither contacted the foundation nor the persons suffering from SMA. “I don’t know what kind of role model he is for the youth… I get scared even thinking about it,” Singh said.
Solicitor General also criticized
To this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta replied, “Our youth have better role models…” Mehta took exception to Raina hosting ‘India’s Got Latent’ season 2 by hanging ‘lemon-mirchi’ (so as to protect the show from evil eyes). SG said, “Recently, he started a new show. He said that now in the beginning, I am doing something which I did not do in the previous series. He hangs lemon and chilli. He did not take anyone’s name, but it was very clear who he was targeting or what he was saying.”
SG Mehta also objected to the use of the words ‘disabled persons’ in Raina’s affidavit and said the appropriate term for it was ‘specially able persons’.
CJI Surya Kant said, “In public life, the more you respect others, the more respect you get. You do not insult people.” Referring to Raina’s conduct, the CJI said, “They think that by sitting outside the country they are outside the jurisdiction. Let them suffer now. If this is not arrogance, we will have to change even the Oxford Dictionary.”
Initially, the bench had imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on them, but later reduced it to Rs 3 lakh each. (ANI)
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