NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court ruled out any blanket ban on 'Sardar' jokes, saying the judiciary could not lay down moral guidelines for citizens and that it should not pass orders on how people should conduct themselves. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi said it was part of the fundamental duties, as laid down in the Constitution, that people should respect each other and no particular community should be made the butt of jokes. However, it also expressed reservation in passing an order to ban jokes.
"Courts cannot lay down moral guidelines for citizens. Although fundamental duties are part of the Constitution, and people must have respect but how can court pass order on such issues?" the bench asked as it referred to Article 51A which says that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to promote harmony and spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities. The court has been examining the case since October 30, 2015, when it agreed to hear a PIL seeking a ban on Sardar jokes for being racist, ridiculing Sikhs, and projecting them as foolish and naïve.
Petitioner, advocate Harvinder Chowdhury contended that cracking jokes on a particular community amounts to racial abuse and hurting religious sentiments. "There are more than 5,000 websites that spread jokes on Sardars projecting Sikhs as unintelligent, stupid, idiot, foolish, naïve, and not well versed in English... It amounts to violation of the fundamental right to life and to live with dignity, as guaranteed under the Constitution," she had submitted. She also alleged that the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have a law to protect them from any insult but the Sikh community did not have such law and pleaded to the court to intervene.
But the bench said it was for the Parliament to frame laws. "Some people laugh when they hear jokes, some are reserved. How can we issue guidelines as to how people should conduct themselves?"
