New Delhi: The Supreme Court will pronounce its order on Friday on a batch of petitions seeking the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra for his tweets on the apex court.
The pleas came up for hearing on Thursday before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan which heard the submissions of advocate Nishant R. Katneshwarkar, who appeared for one of the petitioners, and claimed that Kamra had posted several tweets “scandalous” to the judiciary.
“All these tweets are scandalous and we had sought consent from the attorney general,” Katneshwarkar told the bench, which also comprised Justices R.S. Reddy and M.R. Shah.
He read out the much publicised letter of Attorney General for India K.K. Venugopal, who had granted consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra.
The bench asked the lawyer not to read Kamra’s tweets in the court, saying they have already gone through Venugopal’s letter on the issue.
The consent of either the attorney general or the solicitor general is necessary under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 for initiating contempt of court proceedings against a person.
Venugopal, in a letter to law student Skand Bajpai, who wrote to him seeking consent for contempt proceedings, had written: “I believe it is time people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.”
Also read: Arnab Hearing: AG Gives Consent to Initiate Contempt Proceedings Against Kunal Kamra Over Tweets
“I have gone through each one of the tweets which you have annexed for consent to proceed by way of criminal contempt against Kunal Kamra. The tweets which I am extracting below are not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humour and contempt of the court,” the attorney general had said.
Another one of the petitions, filed by law student Shrirang Katneshwarkar, claimed that Kamra had published these tweets on November 11, when the top court was hearing the appeal of Republic TV head Arnab Goswami against the Bombay high court’s order rejecting his plea seeking interim bail in a 2018 abetment to suicide case.
The Supreme Court granted interim bail to Goswami, who was arrested in a 2018 abetment to suicide case. During the hearing, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud expressed disappointment that the Bombay high court had not intervened in a matter of personal liberty to grant bail to the Republic TV editor.
Many social media users noted that similar treatment was not given to other journalists or activists who have been jailed by BJP-helmed governments.
Reacting to this, Kamra had posted a series of tweets, saying that the “Supreme Court of this country is the most Supreme joke of this country…”
Other tweets mentioned by the petitioners are below.
The pace at which the Supreme Court operates in matters of “National Interests” it’s time we replace Mahatma Gandhi’s photo with Harish Salve’s photo…
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) November 11, 2020
DY Chandrachud is a flight attendant serving champagne to first class passengers after they’re fast tracked through, while commoners don’t know if they’ll ever be boarded or seated, let alone served.
*Justice*— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) November 11, 2020
All lawyers with a spine must stop the use of the prefix “Hon’ble” while referring to the Supreme Court or its judges. Honour has left the building long back…
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) November 11, 2020
“The alleged contemnor (Kamra) has the following of 1.7 million people. The scandalous tweets of the alleged contemnor were seen by his followers and many of them retweeted the same,” the plea has claimed.
The plea said that when “some persons tried to make Kamra aware about the contempt of court, he was rude, arrogant and unapologetic and his conduct shows that he has no regard for the top court.”
Kamra is not the only comic artist against whom the AG has greenlit contempt proceedings. He has also assented to a law student’s request for contempt proceedings against cartoonist Rachita Taneja over drawings on her page Sanitary Panels that deal with the same subjects as Kamra’s tweets – Goswami and the apex court.
(With PTI)