Key points:
- Comedian criticised top court for granting interim bail to Arnab Goswami.
- Tweets crossed line between humour, contempt: Attorney General.
- Tweets are “gross insinuation” against top court and its judges. General said
Stand-up comic Kuna lKamra faces contempt charges over a series of tweets criticizing the Supreme Court for granting TV anchor Arnab Goswami interim bail on Wednesday.
Attorney General KK Venugopal on Thursday gave permission initiate contempt of court proceedings against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra for his ‘highly objectionable’ tweets against the Supreme Court.
The Attorney General has said that the tweets by Kamra are ‘not only in bad taste but also clearly cross the line between humour and contempt of the Court’.
Kamra on Wednesday had shared a series of tweets concerning the top court in his reaction to interim bail granted to Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami by the SC in the 2018 abetment to suicide case. The tweets by Kamra termed to be constituting criminal contempt of court by the AG include, “Honour has left the building (Supreme Court) long back and “The Supreme Court of this Country is the most Supreme joke of this country”.
(KunalKamra (@kunalkamra88) Tweeted: Contempt of court it seems 😂😂😂 https://t.co/QOJ7fE11Fy https://twitter.com/kunalkamra88/status/1326446948388368384?s=20 )
Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) Tweeted: The Supreme Court of this country is the the most Supreme joke of this country… https://twitter.com/kunalkamra88/status/1326437153082109953?s=20
Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) Tweeted: 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… https://twitter.com/kunalkamra88/status/1326471978560139270?s=20
He further said, “The replacement of the tri colour with the the BJP flag is a gross insinuation against the entirety of the Supreme Court of India that the Supreme Court of India is not an independent and impartial institution and so its judges, but on the other hand is a court of the ruling party, BJP, existing for the BJP’s benefit. All this in my opinion constitutes criminal contempt of court.”
The other tweets are also highly objectionable and it would perhaps be for the court to decide the question as to whether these tweets also would constitute criminal contempt of Supreme Court.
Stating that he finds that today people believe that they can boldly and shamelessly criticize the Supreme Court of India and its judges by exercising what they believe is their freedom of speech, AG Venugopal added, But under the Constitution, the freedom of speech is subject to the law of contempt and I believe that it is time that people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazely will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1972. I, therefore, grant consent to proceed by way of initiating contempt proceedings against Sh. Kunal Kamra.”
