They say laughter is the best medicine, but what happens when the medicine gets you in even more trouble?
This is exactly what has been happening in India. There has been a continuous crackdown on voices of dissent, especially on artists, comics, actors and whoever is slightly critical of the government.
In a recent incident in Madurai, a man called Mathivanan faced various IPC charges of for allegedly 'waging war' for sharing some photographs of a family trip that he captioned "Trip to Sirumalai for shooting practice." He was booked and produced before the Judicial Magistrate who fortunately denied remand.
Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court quashed the case against Mathivanan and made important observations about citizen's 'duty to laugh' and 'right to laugh' while also maintaining that it is crucial to ask questions like 'Laugh at what'. He also observed that the correlative right to be funny can be "mined in Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India".
This is a welcoming judgment at a time when people are being threatened with arrest for trivial and bizzare things.
Here's a look at what are the things that have raised trouble with the law.
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