NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday suggested enacting a law on the line of the stringent SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to deter ridiculing of differently abled people, but the Union govt flagged the potential adverse impact of such legislation on creative artists depicting individuals with disability in movies and theatres.Hearing a petition by NGO Cure SMA Foundation that objected to five stand-up comedians ridiculing the exorbitant cost of treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and persons with disability in different shows, a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi told solicitor general Tushar Mehta, “Why don’t you (Union govt) bring a stringent legislation like SC/ST Act? It criminalises ridiculing the depressed, deprived and discriminated class of citizens. A similar law to protect persons with disability could be considered for enactment.”Mehta, sharing the court’s concern, said he would discuss it with the authorities but flagged the point that such a legislation might create a problem for artists who play characters, for example dumb and blind, in movies, theatres and dramas. They may evoke humour but also seek to depict in a larger sense the difficulties they face in society, he said. Appearing for the NGO, senior advocate Aparajita Singh said the organisation arranges for treatment of SMA patients mainly through crowd funding, which was affected because of a stand-up comedian’s disparaging remarks on cost of treatment. She said that a decision to allow corporate entities to donate CSR funds for treatment of SMA patients would go a long way in mitigating their suffering.When the court said the govt should create a corpus for treatment of SMA patients, Mehta said the Centre already has a scheme through which treatments up to Rs 50 lakh are borne by the exchequer. However, in one case, which was before SC, the treatment cost Rs 16 crore, a huge sum which the govt felt could be utilised to treat many more patients. “There is a platform for corporate CSR donations,” he said.Whan Samay Raina’s counsel said the stand-up comedian, who was hauled up by the court for his disparaging remarks against SMA patients along with others of his tribe who had ridiculed disability, had contributed Rs 2.5 lakh to SMA, Singh said the NGO does not need his money. She said if he could atone for his mistake by hosting achievers with SMA, it would send a positive message in society and make the public aware of the degenerative disease.Singh gave the names of 11 outstanding achievers — IITians, computer professionals working with Google and Microsoft, acclaimed author, academicians, filmmaker, doctors and sportsman — who suffer from SMA, and suggested these persons are hosted on comedians’ digital shows to spread the message in society.The bench agreed and asked the comedians to host two shows every month featuring the achievers with SMA and disability and contribute the earnings towards treatment of differently abled and SMA patients. “We are putting a social burden on you instead of punishing you,” CJI Kant and Justice Bagchi said.
