'Santa Banta' jokes under Supreme Court scanner

The "Santa Banta" jokes on Friday came under the lens of the Supreme Court which agreed to hear a public interest litigation seeking ban websites on sardar jokes by a month. The petition said the jokes portrayed the sardar community as 'persons of low intellect, stupid and foolish'.

The petition filed by one Harvinder Chowdhury, a Sikh, said it was 'about time' that such jokes, which amount to insulting the community were prevented from being propagated through the Internet. Such a complaint has come up for the first time in Delhi -- that too before the Supreme Court.

Hearing the case on Friday, a bench comprising Justices T S Thakur and V Gopala Gowda said: "This (Sikh) community is known for great sense of humour and they also enjoy such jokes. You must have gone through the jokes of Khushwant Singh... This is only an amusement. Why do you want it to be stopped?...Prepare your case well. We will hear you".

Chowdhury, however, argued that these jokes affect the dignity of the community, to which the SC said: "Even Sikhs may object to your petition. Fortunately, we have a Sikh judge in the Supreme Court. Can we post this case before the Judge?"

Referring to a recent comment by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during campaign for Bihar assembly polls that all Biharis are intelligent people, the lawyer said that it reflected as if other communities were not intelligent.

The judges smiled and said, "When Modi goes to Punjab he will say Punjabis are intelligent."

The petitioner argued that Sikhs are ridiculed abroad because of these jokes.

"A writ of mandamus be issued to the respondent to ban 5,000 websites which spread jokes on Sardars/Sikhs projecting them as unintelligent, stupid, idiot, foolish, naive, inept not well versed with English...on the ground that it violates fundamental right to life and to live with dignity guaranteed under article 21 of the Constitution," the plea said.

"All the jokes relating to Sikh community should be stopped. My children are humiliated and feel embarrassed and they don't want to suffix Singh and Kaur after their name," Chowdhury said.

"We are being ridiculed by these jokes. We have sacrificed a lot but when we go abroad we are ridiculed. I have suffered and I want these to be stopped," she added.

She said she wanted more time to prepare and argue the case. The court then adjourned the case for a month.

The Santa Banta jokes stay for now.

With Agency Inputs