NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will seriously examine a plea by a Sikh lawyer to shut down all websites hosting Santa-Banta jokes after it was informed that the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee had also moved the top court seeking to protect the community members from being the butt of jokes which often lead to bullying and racism in their worst forms. The Delhi Sikh Management Committee’s plea is likely to be argued by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani Initially the bench asked the lawyer Harvinder Chowdhury to explain who should be the arbiter of whether a joke was demeaning to the community, but later agreed to examine it with all seriousness.“A small minority of the members may be feeling bad. But this is a large-hearted community which has the capacity to laugh at itself,” Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, who was sitting alongside Justices R Banumathi and AK Sikri, said. The petitioner, Chowdhury, contested this view though, insisting that a majority of the 3 crore strong community was behind her. Sixty thousand people have already submitted representations. Others are planning to follow suit, she said.This is an emotive issue, Chowdhury said, wondering why the court should not deal with it. She said that the jokes had in some places manifested themselves in bullying and racism. Philippines introduced an anti-bullying law after a school student committed suicide, she said.Chowdhury said that in India students were changing their names from Singh to other surnames for fear of being targeted. She urged the court to lay down guidelines on the lines of Vishakha guidelines pertaining to sexual harassment in absence of a law to deal with the problem of harassment faced by students of the community. “Is this a collective effort? Does the community support you?” Justice Thakur asked.Chowdhury said that 300-400 Singh Sabhas have offered their support to her case. Lakhs will gather outside the Supreme Court unless prevented, she said. Justice Thakur then agreed to examine the pleas together. “If you say the community is feeling bad, we have to seriously examine it,” he said, posting the public interest litigation along with the other plea by the management committee.Chowdhury said there were over 5,000 websites dedicated to Santa-Banta jokes alone and that she had sought judicial intervention to have them shut down as they ridiculed and promoted hatred against the hard-working community.