Opinion No laughing matter
AIB Roast FIRs are absurd. It is up to the higher judiciary to restore perspective and sanity.
A lower court in Mumbai has thrown the book at the organisers, participants and members of the audience of the AIB Roast, directing the police to file FIRs against leading names in Indian cinema. It has set the action rolling on an absurd courtroom drama that belongs in another time, or another country. The charges range from violation of the controversial Section 66A of the Information Technology Act to the very serious act of criminal conspiracy. Applied to a comedy show, it’s like using a hydrogen bomb to kill a rabbit.
In India, the lower courts have shown a deplorable willingness to allow the misuse of archaic or controversial laws to restrict the freedom of expression. In the matter of the AIB Roast, the petitioner has complained that off-colour banter was articulated in the presence of women. Does the Girgaum court believe that women are delicate and must be protected from bad language? If so, why are women in the audience like Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt being prosecuted as perpetrators? Are there two classes of women, then? The law abhors arbitrariness, but it is rife in this case, where sections of the audience have been singled out for prosecution. Besides, since an FIR automatically guarantees action, and since some of the charges are non-bailable, absurd consequences can be expected. Will a large crop of leading actors be locked up soon for participating in or merely watching a slightly ribald comedy?
Laws exist to regulate society, not according to timeless principles but according to its evolving needs. The laws that are routinely used by the guardians of high morality and hurt sentiments to contain free expression are arguably dated or relatively unexamined. In India, politics is generally either blasé about freedoms, or actually restricts them in order to narrow the public discourse. In this negative climate, the higher judiciary has served as the protector of freedoms, constantly reinterpreting their amplitude as the needs and expectations of society evolve. The size of AIB’s willing audience, and the viewership on YouTube, is more evidence of Indian society’s ability to deal with obscenity. Now, it is up to the higher judiciary to re-examine the right to expression accordingly.
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