The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to impose ban on Sardar/Sikh jokes. The apex court said it can’t lay moral guidelines for the citizens over the issue.
Responding to a petition seeking to ban jokes on Sikhs, the Supreme Court made it clear that it can’t issue any guidelines and opined that it’ll be ‘impossible to implement its order or guidelines’.
During the hearing, the apex court observed that it is has no right to frame guidelines on the issue and asked the aggrieved to opt for alternate mechanism like 66 A of the Information Technology Act 2000 or to seek justice under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
“If anything is surfacing on social media, anyone can take a recourse under 67A of the IT Act or under the IPC. How can we, under Article 32, lay guidelines and what kind of guidelines should be laid. We are not getting into concept of joke and all. Question is what kind of guidelines this court can lay down?” observed Justice Dipak Misra.
However, petitioner Harvinder Choudhary had contended that such jokes portray the Sikh community in negative light and wants such websites, which disseminate such ‘insensitive’ jokes, to be prosecuted under laws that carry a prison term of six months to five years. The petitioner argued that such jokes on many social network websites portray Sikhs as ‘unintelligent’, ‘foolish’ and ‘naive’, making them an easy target of ridicule and racial abuse.
The Supreme Court said it will pass a detailed formal order on the issue on March 27.