Aug 25, 2025: On Monday, the Supreme Court asked five social media influencers, including Samay Raina, host of "India's Got Latent," to apologize completely on their podcast or show for making fun of people with disabilities and rare genetic disorders. Freedom of speech and expression cannot apply to commercial speech that hurts the feelings of other communities, according to a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which asked the Centre to develop guidelines to curb speeches that offend or ridicule disabled, women, children, and senior citizens. It stated that the court would think about penalizing social media influencers, including Raina, who hurt disabled people. The five are accused of making fun of disabled and those suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and visual impairment.
The remaining social media influencers were present in the court, with the exception of Sonali Thakkar, alias Sonali Aditya Desai, who was granted an exemption from having to appear in person in exchange for her promise that an unconditional apology would be broadcast on her program. The Bench told Attorney General R Venkataramani that the guidelines for social media regulations should not be a knee-jerk reaction to one incident but based on broad based parameters incorporating views of all stakeholders.
The highest court also cited Raina's apology affidavit and stated that he initially attempted to defend himself and appear innocent. On July 15, the top court asked the five social media influencers, including Raina, to appear before the court in a case seeking action against them for ridiculing persons suffering from disabilities.