SC to decide whether to initiate contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday reserved its order on contempt pleas put in against Kunal Kamra. The petitions against the comedian were put in by two law students Shrirang Katneshwarkar and Skand Bajpai and a lawyer Abhijudaya Mishra.

A three judge bench comprising of justices Ashok Bhushan, RS Reddy and MR Shah will pass the orders on Friday.

Earlier, Attorney General K K Venugopal had given his concurrence for beginning contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra for his 18th November tweet, dubbing it “grossly vulgar and obnoxious” and tended to lower the authority of the top court.

According to law, the consent of either the Attorney General or the Solicitor General is requisite, under section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, for initiating contempt proceedings.

The stand-up comedian had criticised the Supreme Court in his tweets which the Attorney General said were in “bad taste”. KK Venugopal had also stated that it was time people know that attacking it brazenly will draw punishment.

According to the petitioners, Kunal Kamra started tweeting on 11th November when the apex court was hearing the appeal of Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami against the Bombay High Court’s order rejecting his plea seeking interim bail in the 2018 abetment to suicide case.

However, Kunal 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.

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