Can Aadhaar decide what you watch online? SC tests age-gating after ‘India’s Got Latent’ row

New rules coming for social media content? SC orders draft after four weeks of consultation

The Supreme Court on November 27 signalled a tougher line on user-generated content, calling for a neutral, autonomous regulator for social media platforms and floating Aadhaar-based age checks for 'obscene' online material, even as it stressed that free speech must not be 'gagged'.

According to the report by The Indian Express, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said 'self-styled' industry bodies were not enough to police content created and uploaded by users, and asked the Centre to come back with draft rules for public consultation within four weeks.

The observations came while the court was hearing petitions by YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia and others challenging multiple FIRs over allegedly obscene remarks made during comedian Samay Raina’s YouTube show India’s Got Latent. A separate plea by the SMA Cure Foundation accused several comics of making derogatory jokes about persons with disabilities.

Why now: ‘India’s Got Latent’ row reaches the top court

The case is one of the first major social-media outrage cycles to reach the Supreme Court after a spate of FIRs across states over a single YouTube episode. In February 2025, remarks made by Allahbadia on India’s Got Latent triggered police complaints and political criticism, leading to the video being taken down and the show eventually being pulled from YouTube.

According to The Indian Express report, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the court that what was at issue was not just 'obscenity' but 'perversity,' and that there were clear gaps in the way user-generated content is regulated today. “I create my own YouTube channel, I can have my own programme. I am not controlled by statutory regulation or, at least, self-imposed regulation,” he said, according to court reporting.

Attorney General R Venkataramani informed the Bench that the Centre had already drafted new guidelines and would put them out for stakeholder consultation. Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, intervening in the matter, pressed for broad public debate on any fresh rules, stressing that they directly implicate the constitutional right to free speech.

Could Aadhaar become a gatekeeper for online content?

The Bench went beyond post-facto takedown to ask if platforms should be required to verify a user’s age before streaming adult content. Justice Bagchi pointed out that by the time a brief on-screen warning appears and vanishes, 'the show has already started,' and suggested that Aadhaar-based age verification could be explored so that minors are screened out before such content plays.

CJI Kant described the Aadhaar idea as an 'illustrative suggestion' and said any system could first be tried on a pilot basis and rolled back if it is found to choke free expression, The Indian Express report added.

But any Aadhaar-linked age gate for streaming platforms would run into the court’s own 2018 Aadhaar ruling, which struck down the provision that allowed private entities to demand Aadhaar authentication and warned against commercial exploitation and profiling of users.

Existing IT rules and self-regulation under scrutiny

Senior advocate Amit Sibal, representing the Indian Broadcast and Digital Foundation, which counts major OTT platforms among its members, argued that there is already a three-tier framework under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, even though parts of it are under challenge before the Delhi High Court. Many OTT platforms, he said, continue to follow the code voluntarily and are subject to a grievance redress mechanism led by a committee headed by former judge Gita Mittal.

The Bench, however, questioned why 'such instances keep recurring' if self-regulation and existing rules are effective. CJI Kant said 'self-styled bodies will not help' and called instead for a 'neutral autonomous body' insulated both from industry and the state to serve as an independent sieve for harmful content.

While emphasising that regulations should not 'throttle' free speech, the judges underlined that there must be accountability when content causes real-world harm, fuels misinformation or normalises degrading speech.

Court moots SC/ST-style law to protect persons with disabilities

In the linked case brought by the SMA Cure Foundation over allegedly insensitive jokes about persons with disabilities, the CJI asked the government to consider a dedicated, stringent law modelled on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to punish demeaning speech targeting people with disabilities.

“Humour cannot be at the cost of the dignity of others,” Solicitor General Mehta agreed, according to reports from the hearing. Such a law, if pursued by the government and Parliament, would mark a significant escalation in how Indian law treats ableist speech, moving it closer to the treatment of caste-based hate.