A lemon-chilli totem on stage couldn’t ward off this trouble. The Supreme Court fined Samay Raina ₹3 lakh for dodging its disability-inclusion order, calling out his affidavit as empty words.
Screengrab from Samay Raina's comedy special
The Supreme Court fined stand-up comic and YouTuber Samay Raina ₹3 lakh on Tuesday. Four others linked to his show face the same penalty. The order came for violating earlier court directions in a case tied to insensitive remarks about persons with disabilities.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana passed the order. The judges said Raina had taken the court for a ride. They called his conduct a brazen violation of court orders. The Bench also flagged an affidavit filed with nothing on record to back it. The fine must be deposited within two weeks.
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Cure SMA India Foundation filed the original petition. It accused Raina of insensitive remarks on the high cost of treatment for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. The group also alleged he ridiculed a person with the disability. The petition sought regulation of such online content, citing the right to life and dignity of persons with disabilities.
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In November 2025, Court had directed Raina and other comedians to host at least two events a month. These events were meant to raise funds for a corpus for disability treatment. The comedians were also told to invite specially-abled persons to join their shows.
Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh, representing the petitioner, told the Court that Raina never reached out to her client or other specially-abled persons for his shows. This failure formed the core of Tuesday’s contempt finding.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also criticised Raina’s conduct. He pointed to a lemon-and-chilli totem Raina hangs on stage as superstition against bad luck. Mehta said this made clear what Raina was mocking.
The Bench told Raina he needed to mend his ways or face consequences. Raina’s counsel said his shows had raised ₹9 lakh for disabled persons. Singh replied that they did not want the money.
Justice Bagchi said Raina should have invited Singh’s client instead of appearing to buy off the community. The CJI added a question about the community’s right to dignity. Justice Bagchi said Raina’s show deals in humour and happiness, but Raina focused only on material gain.
Raina’s counsel said specially-abled people had attended his shows and photos exist as proof. He admitted Singh’s client was not reached out to and called it unfortunate. He promised to fix this.
The CJI responded that the Court had granted liberty for a long time, expecting the young performers to act on it, but nothing changed. Singh called the resistance ego and arrogance and said she would not back down.
The Bench first considered a ₹10 lakh fine before settling on ₹3 lakh per person. It also directed all five to comply with the earlier orders. The Court warned that non-compliance would raise the fine to ₹30 lakh.
The case connects to an earlier controversy where YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia was barred from airing shows after FIRs over offensive comments on Raina’s show, India’s Got Latent. That bar was later lifted after the petitioners agreed to create shows for disabled persons.
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