The Supreme Court has verbally observed that influencers cannot hurt community sentiment in the garb of freedom of speech. A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi during the resumed hearing of pleas relating to comedians for their objectionable comments observed that “when you are commercialising speech you cannot hurt sentiment of a community”.
Justice Bagchi verbally remarked: “It is not just freedom of speech but the question is of commercial speech. There are cases of classical, commercial or free speech. When we talk of commercial speech, then there is no freedom there.”
The judge added: “Humour is part of life and we can take jokes on us. But when you start making fun of others…there is a breach of sensitivity. India is a diverse country with so many communities and these are so called influencers of today. When you are commercialising speech, you cannot use a community and hurt their sentiment.”
