New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked an expert panel headed by former apex court judge H.S. Bedi to submit draft guidelines so that appropriate orders can be passed to prevent circulation of sardarji jokes in the websites.
A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud gave six weeks time for the panel to hold discussions and submit the guidelines.
The Bench passed this order after hearing counsel for various parties including Shiro-mani Gurdwara Praba-ndhak Committee (SGPC) which said that the community is being bullied by such jokes.
Advocate Harvinder Choudhry, the main petitioner cited various instances of Sikhs being ridiculed and said over 4,000 children had committed suicide unable to withstand the humiliation. The CJI told the counsel “we have asked counsel to indicate the areas which we can address in our order. We will certainly stop commercial exploitation.”
The petitioners submitted that perception plays a big role at various levels of decision making, be it at the level of executive, in the bureaucracy and even in the judiciary.
If this circulation of Sardar jokes be allowed to continue, depicting Sikhs as naïve, inept, etc. then, since it creates a stereotype image of Sikhs, it is also leading to undermine the contributions made by Sikhs for the Independence of India. The Bench directed the matter to be listed after six weeks.
