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SC to decide tomorrow on contempt plea against stand-up comic Kunal Kamra, cartoonist Rachita Taneja
The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will pronounce its order on Friday on a batch of petitions seeking initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against stand-up comic artist Kunal Kamra and cartoonist Rachita Taneja for their alleged objectionable tweets against the apex court.
By
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New Delhi
The pleas came up for hearing 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 letter of Attorney General K K Venugopal, who had granted consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra.
The bench asked the lawyer not to read the alleged contemptuous tweets of the comic artist in the open 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 proceedings against a person.
One of petitions have been filed by law student, Shrirang Katneshwarkar, who has claimed that Kamra had 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 a 2018 abetment to suicide case.Â
A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah on Thursday took note of the fact that Attorney General K K Venugopal has consented to the plea filed by law student Aditya Kashyap against the comic artist Taneja.
In the proceeding conducted via video conferencing, the top court was told by senior advocate P S Narasimha that the tweets have no iota of discussion on the merits of the case itself but is intended to scandalise the court. We have the clear opinion of the Attorney General where he is of the view that a prima facie contempt is made out, the lawyer said.Â
The Attorney General has opined that the tweet is deliberately intended to shake the confidence of the public in the judiciary, he said. The top court would now pronounce the order on Friday whether to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against her.Â
Venugopal, in his consent letter to Kashyap for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Taneja, said, ''I am satisfied that each one of the tweets with the cartoons attached to them is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India, and hence I give my consent to initiate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 in regard to each one of the tweets."
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