Updated: December 1, 2020 9:44:04 pm
Prior to this, AG Venugopal had granted permission to initiate contempt proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra. Archive)
The Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal, has given his consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the comic book illustrator Rachita Taneja, for her tweets about the bail granted to Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in an incitement to the suicide case.
The request for contempt proceedings was made by a law student, Aditya Kashyap.
Of the two tweets on which a contempt process was requested, Venugopal said that the first was a “serious insinuation of the Supreme Court of this country.” On the second, he said: “The tweet is clearly calculated to undermine public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court of India.” LiveLaw reported.
In his letter requesting to initiate the contempt process, Kashyap had cited Taneja’s tweets and written: “The tweets and publications mentioned here and their publication scandalize the Honorable Supreme Court, insinuate and attribute motives behind the Court’s decisions. The dividing line between humor and contempt for the Court has also been clearly violated. These positions not only erode trust in the institution of justice by criticizing the mechanism of administration of justice, but also interfere with the administration of justice. Tweets and posts are based on distorted facts, inspired by malice and amount to committing ‘criminal contempt’, “he quoted. Bar and bench.
Prior to this, Venugopal had granted permission to start contempt proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra, at the request of Anuj Singh, defender of Allahabad.
Kamra faces contempt by proceeding a tweet he posted on Chief Justice of India SA Bobde on November 18.
Comedian Kunal Kamra. (YouTube / Kunal Kamra)
In granting consent under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, Venugopal wrote that the tweet was “extremely vulgar and disgusting.”
“… And I have no doubt that it would tend to diminish the authority of the Supreme Court of India, as well as undermine the trust that the litigating public has in the institute of the Supreme Court itself,” he wrote.
On November 12 Venugopal had given his consent for the initiation of criminal proceedings for contempt of court against Kamra for his tweets in the Supreme Court the day before. Kamra had posted the tweets on the day the court granted Goswami provisional bond. This came after several letters of request to the Attorney General, including from Shrirang Katneshwarkar, a law student from Aurangabad; Rizwan Siddiquee, an advocate; and Pune-based attorneys Amey Abhay Sirsikar and Abhishek Sharad Raskar.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
.
