A day after Attorney General KK Venugopal gave his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra, the live comedian on Friday tweeted an open letter to the Supreme Court justices and the Center’s chief legal officer and stated that he did not intend to retract or apologize for his comments.
Kamra said the tweets, which the attorney general found in bad taste, reflected his opinion on the Supreme Court ruling on Arnab Goswami’s request for bail.
“My point of view has not changed because the silence of the Supreme Court of India on issues of the personal freedom of others cannot be left without criticism. I do not intend to retract my tweets or apologize for them. I think they speak for themselves, “Kamra said in the post titled” No lawyers, no apologies, no fines, no wasted space. “
He also suggested that the court’s time could be better used to hear cases related to “demonetization, the petition challenging the revocation of J & K’s special status, the question of the legality of the electoral bonds or countless other matters that deserve more time and Attention”.
To be sure, the Supreme Court has not yet accepted the requests to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kunal Kamra.
Rule 3 (c) of the 1975 Supreme Court Rules to regulate contempt procedures requires that a petition seeking the initiation of contempt proceedings first obtain the consent of the attorney general.
In his communication giving his consent, KK Venugopal said it was time for people to understand that attacking the supreme court blatantly will attract punishment. “People believe that they can ‘boldly and shamelessly condemn’ the Supreme Court of India and its judges exercising their freedom of expression, but according to the Constitution, freedom of expression is subject to contempt law,” Venugopal had said Thursday . while giving consent.
“This is a blatant insinuation against the entire Supreme Court of India that the Supreme Court is not an independent and impartial institution and neither are its judges, but is on the other hand a Court of the ruling party, the Bharatiya Party. Janata, existing for the benefit of the BJP, ”the attorney general had observed in Kamra’s tweets.
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