NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice of proven cause to the comedian Kunal kamra in three contempt petitions accusing him of posting ‘stubborn’ (intentionally disobedient to authority) tweets against the Supreme Court.
The court said Kamra did not need to appear in person to answer the contempt charges. Attorney General KK Venugopal had consented to filing contempt allegations against the comedian.
The court also issued a notice of demonstrative cause to comic book artist Rachita Taneja. Both Kamra and Taneja have six weeks to respond.
The pleas had been brought before a court on Thursday headed by Judge Ashok Bhushan, who heard submissions by lawyer Nishant R Katneshwarkar, who appeared by one of the petitioners, and claimed that Kamra had posted several scandalous tweets for the judiciary.
“All of these tweets are scandalous and we had asked for the consent of the attorney general,” Katneshwarkar told the court, which also included Justices RS Reddy and MR Shah.
The consent of the attorney general or attorney general is required under section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act 1971 to initiate contempt proceedings against a person.
The attorney general had consented to the initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra, saying that the tweets are in “bad taste” and that it is time for people to understand that blatantly attacking the supreme court will attract punishment under of the Law of Contempt of Courts of 1972.
One of the petitions was filed by law student Shrirang Katneshwarkar and others, who claimed that Kamra had started tweeting on November 11, as the high court heard journalist Arnab Goswami’s appeal against the Bombay High Court order that denied his request for a guilty plea. Provisional bail in a suicide complicity case in 2018.
The statement alleges that after the high court granted Goswami provisional bond on November 11, Kamra “re-posted several tweets and thus scandalized” the high court and “further reduced” its authority.
“The supposed contemnor (Kamra) has the following 1.7 million people. The scandalous tweets of the alleged contestant were seen by his followers and many of them retweeted the same thing ”, the allegation stated.
He has alleged that when some people tried to get Kamra to find out about the contempt of court, he was “rude, arrogant and unapologetic” and his conduct shows that he “has no respect” for the higher court.
The statement alleges that his tweets are in “such bad taste” that an ordinary and prudent man can deduce that he has scandalized the supreme court.
.
