Today, Attorney General KK Venugopal has gave his consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against Stand-up Comic Kunal Kamra’s tweets flowing against Supreme court of India.
Kunal Kamra has tweeted on Wednesday’s order passed by Justice DY Chandrachud of Supreme Court on granting bail to Republic TV Editor-in-chief, Arnab Goswami. Apparently, he has made four tweets which clearly insulted judiciary and criticized the Supreme Court.
In his consent letter, KK Venugopal has stated that the tweets are highly objectionable and were “not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humor and contempt of the Court.” Thus, in his opinion, “…..constitutes criminal contempt of Court”.
Moreover, Kamra has also posted a morphed picture of Supreme Court building filtering in orange shade and depicting a BJP flag hoisted in the foyer of the Supreme Court. In regard to which, Venugopal has remarked that;
“The picture of the Supreme Court building in saffron colour with the BJP flag is a gross insinuation against the entirety of the Supreme Court of India that the SC is not an independent and impartial institution and so too its judges but on the other hand is a Court of the ruling party, the BJP existing for the BJP’s benefit. All this in my opinion constitutes criminal contempt of court,”
Since the tweets have been trolled on Twitter, the AG’s office received 10 letters seeking permission to initiate comtempt of court proceedings against Kamra. In which, Venugopalhas allowed 8 consent letters including a law student Skand Bajpai.
Further, AG has added that freedom of speech was subject to contempt of court and it was high time people should understand, not to criticize the institution ‘unjustifiedly and brazenly’ which ultimately attract to punishment under Contempt of Courts Act, 1972.
