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Will Kunal Kamra face contempt proceedings for his tweets? Supreme Court to decide tomorrow
Attorney General K K Venugopal had last month given his consent for initiating contempt proceedings against Kamra for his November 18 tweets in which he allegedly criticised the top court.
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The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on contempt petitions filed against comedian Kunal Kamra. The petitions against the stand-up comedian were filed by two law students Shrirang Katneshwarkar and Skand Bajpai and a lawyer Abhijudaya Mishra.
A bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, RS Reddy and MR Shah will pass the orders on Friday.
Attorney General K K Venugopal had last month given his consent for initiating contempt proceedings against Kamra for his November 18 tweet, saying it was “grossly vulgar and obnoxious” and tended to lower the authority of the Supreme Court.
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 proceedings against a person.
Kamra had allegedly criticised the top court in his tweets which the Attorney General said were in “bad taste”. Venugopal had also said that it was time people understood that attacking it brazenly will attract punishment.
The petitioners claimed that Kamra started publishing tweets on November 11 when the top court was hearing the appeal of journalist Arnab Goswami against the Bombay High Court’s order rejecting his plea seeking interim bail in the 2018 abetment to suicide case.
Kamra had refused to retract his tweets and apologise.
“The tweets I recently put out have been found in contempt of court. All that I tweeted was from my view of the Supreme Court of India giving a partial decision in favour of a Prime Time Loudspeaker,” he said in a statement addressed to Venugopal and the judges on his Twitter page. “My view hasn’t changed because the silence of the Supreme Court of India on matters of other’s personal liberty cannot go uncriticized. I don’t intend to retract my tweets or apologise for them. I believe they speak for themselves,” he had added.
(With inputs from agencies)
