Two law students and three lawyers jointly filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday against comedian Kunal Kamra for his disparaging tweets against the SC for granting journalist Arnab Goswami bail.
Temporary bail for Goswami and two other people in a case of complicity in the suicide of architect Anvay Naik in 2018 was granted on Wednesday by a court headed by Judge DY Chandrachud.
The petition comes a day after Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal granted consent to file a contempt petition under Rule 3 (c) of the 1975 Supreme Court Rules Governing Contempt Procedures.
The petitioners are Shrirang Katneshwarkar, Nitika Duhan (both law students) and three lawyers, Amey Abhay Sirsikar, Abhishek Sharad Raskar, and Satyendra Vinayak Muley.
Also read: ‘He will not apologize’: Kunal Kamra tweets to the Supreme Court justices about a complaint for contempt
On Thursday, AG KK Venugopal had given its consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Kamra.
Referring to his tweets describing the SC as the most supreme joke in this country, the AG stated: “The tweets … are not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humor and contempt for the court.”
AG Venugopal said this was a “grave insinuation” against the Supreme Court that the court and its judges are not independent or impartial, but exist for the benefit of the BJP.
The petitioners wrote to AG Venugopal on Wednesday asking for his consent to prosecute Kamra for contempt. The Attorney General maintained that these tweets were derogatory when he said: “According to the Constitution, freedom of speech is subject to contempt law and I think it is time for people to understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiably and Shameless will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act of 1972. “
The petition filed under the Contempt of Courts Act and Article 129 by attorney Nishant Katneshwarkar stated: “The petitioners have filed the present petition for criminal contempt against the alleged contestant for scandalizing this court and further reducing the authority of this court. court by posting tweets on twitter.com. “
Kamra subsequently issued a tweet refusing to apologize or delete his tweets. He has about 1.7 million followers, many of whom have even retweeted these objectionable tweets, according to the petition.
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