Santa Banta jokes may face a ban in the coming days. The judiciary has been after the matter for years. It may bring in a law to save the Sikh community from this Bullying and discrimination.
Santa Banta jokes are famous amongst the youth for their incredible sense of humour. There are a number of websites who host such type of jokes and memes. These can be downloaded and shared very quickly over social networking sites.
Unfortunately for the Sikh community it has never been a matter of pride. They have been targeted for no reason, this has brought troubles in their life. Children have been reported to refuse wearing the turban, Sikh people are changing their titles just to avoid the nonsense of these jokes.
Let us see in detail the origin, proceedings and decision of the highest judicial authority of India into this matter with proper timeline.
July 2013 : Case in the court was filed against Boman Irani, film Director Akashdeep Sabir and others involved in the film for trademarks infringement of santabanta.com . The case was filed by JD Ghai who is the chairman of santabanta.com . J D Ghai demanded monetary compensation along with licence fees, credit to the company and promotions of the upcoming movie on the website.
February 2015 : Boman Irani, Neha Dhupia, Emy Jackson along with other actors and Director Akashdeeep Sabir owner of Cinetek Telefilms claim that they already have the copyright of the trademark dating before the date of J D Ghai’s. The trademark and other legal documents have been provided by Music Broadcast Pvt. Ltd. Company.
October 2015 : A Sikh lady advocate files petition in the Supreme Court seeking to install web filters on these websites. She demanded that penal action must be taken in this respect. She was saddened by the effect of these jokes on children specially. Children fear to wear the turban, they also abstain from being recognised as a Sikh boy/girl. Students going outside the state do not use their titles in their names. This racial stereotype discrimination was completely unacceptable.
January 2016 : Delhi’s Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee moved to a top court to protect community members from being unnecessary target of this Bullying and racism. It said that this is the worst form of discrimination. Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani was given this case with committee to be formed.
February 2016 : The Supreme Court asks the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee to be practical on the particular case. It means that jokes are not to be taken seriously.
February 2017 : Justice Dipak Misra and R Bhanumati came up with a decision that the community needs to be practical. ‘You cannot do anything if your colleagues crack jokes on you’ said Dipak Misra. ‘ How can you ban so many websites’ if you stop one another websites come up . ‘You cannot issue guidelines, what kind of guidelines will be issued? Who will be responsible for implementation of the guidelines?’. The bench of judges assured that the government would bring in law for the matter but for now no guidelines can be issued.
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