Recently, the well-known stand-up comedian, Kunal Kamra, posted a number of tweets criticizing the Supreme Court. As Kunal Kamra stood by his tweets, three consecutive petitions were filed in the Supreme Court against the comedian on December 17’ 2020, seeking contempt of court action.
The tweets by the comedian criticized the Supreme Court over how quickly it decided on the case of the Republic TV owner, Arnab Goswami’s bail plea while when it comes to thousands of people which are stuck with undertrials are languishing in jails across, the court finds it difficult to find time for such people.
A lot of people wrote letters to the Attorney General, Mr. KK Venugopal, seeking his permission for prosecuting Kunal Kamra for contempt of court. The permission was given by the Attorney General and the petitions regarding Contempt of Court were moved to the Supreme Court.
A week later, Kunal Kamra tweeted criticizing the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, to which the Attorney General gave approval for another set of contempt proceedings against Kamra.
As the petitions move to the Supreme Court, Kunal Kamra still stands strong with his tweets and recently tweeted another tweet, saying,
“No lawyers, no apology, no fine, no waste of space.”
One of such petitions is filed by a Law student, Shrirang Katneshwar, and others who state that the series of tweets started on November 11’ 2020, when the court held a hearing regarding the appeal filed by the journalist, Arnab Goswami against Bombay High Court’s order where the court rejected the plea seeking interim bail in 2018 “abetment to suicide” case.
It is claimed that the tweets posted by Kunal Kamra scandalize the Supreme Court and lowers its authority. Since the comedian is a well-known personality, a lot of people re-tweeted his tweets, further defaming the Court, as stated in the plea.
Since the comedian seems unapologetic and rude and has no regard for the Supreme Court, no one knows what will the court say. Previously, such contemnors have been let off by the Supreme Court by showing magnanimity, upon tendering that the accused were apologetic.
KK Venugopal, while approving the petitions of contempt of court, stated,
“today people believe that they can boldly and brazenly condemn the Supreme Court of India and its judges by exercising their freedom of speech, but under the Constitution, the freedom of speech is subject to the law of contempt.”
“I have gone through each one of the tweets which you have annexed for consent to proceed by way of criminal contempt against Kunal Kamra. The tweets which I am extracting below are not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humor and contempt of the court.”
said the Attorney General in his letter to one of the petitioners.
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