No more Santa Banta jokes, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave six weeks to a panel to work on guidelines to stop the circulation of jokes on the Sikh community  

A panel was constituted by the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) comprising of former Supreme Court judges to work on measures to stop the circulation of such jokes, which according to a PIL filed by Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee, "are a violation of their right to equality and an attack on the dignity of the Sikh community."

According to the petitioner, advocate Harvinder Chowdhury around 4,000 Sikh children were driven to commit suicides because of such demeaning jokes on the community. “She has been very passionate about it. We must not waste more time on this. Tell the panel to formulate the mechanism within six weeks so that we can hold a proper hearing of the matter,” a bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur told the DSGMC counsel, senior lawyer RS Suri.