The Supreme Court on Friday quashed criminal proceedings against comedian Samay Raina and four others for their remarks about people with disabilities and appreciated their efforts to spread awareness and uphold the dignity of disabled persons.Besides Raina, the apex court quashed the FIRs and criminal proceedings against Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar.The top court appreciated the efforts made by them in organising a chess tournament in March for specially-abled persons and helping raise awareness about organisations working for persons with disabilities, including the ones supporting those suffering from rare diseases such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).”Once there are genuine efforts, positive results are bound to be there,” a Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said.”They are very bright youngsters. If they have started working in the positive direction, they will bring positive results,” the Bench observed.The top court was hearing a batch of pleas, including the one filed by SMA Cure Foundation, which works for individuals affected by the rare SMA disease.The foundation’s plea flagged jokes made by “India’s Got Latent” host Raina and other social media influencers Goyal, Ghai, Thakkar and Tanwar.During the hearing, senior advocate Aparajita Singh, appearing for the foundation, said pursuant to the top court’s order in the matter, these influencers had made “genuine efforts” and had tried to engage with the foundation.”This matter was going nowhere till this court took a very strong stand last time,” Aparajita said.While quashing the FIRs and related proceedings against them, the Bench said the matter concerning these five influencers stood closed.The top court said it would consider the larger issue concerning the need for issuing comprehensive directions to protect the dignity of persons with disabilities.During the hearing, the CJI observed that on Thursday, he and some judges of the top court had the opportunity to interact with a delegation of persons with disabilities.”It was quite a learning and an eye-opener for us also,” he said, adding, “We have requested them to send their suggestions also.”The delegation with whom the CJI and other judges interacted on Thursday comprised 20 persons from different fields, including paralympian Nidhi Mishra, Ankur Dhama, Major DP Singh and Chhonzin Angmo, among others.During the hearing on Friday, the Bench noted that these influencers had engaged in effective conversation with the foundation and were willing to invite persons affected by the SMA to their shows.Last November, Raina and others volunteered before the apex court to organise at least two events each month, either in person or online, to raise funds for the corpus that may be created to provide financial aid and assistance for persons affected by the SMA.