Kunal Kamra faces contempt charges for criticizing Supreme Court
What's the story
Comedian Kunal Kamra is facing contempt charges over a series of tweets where he criticized the Supreme Court of India for granting interim bail to television anchor Arnab Goswami on Wednesday. Attorney General KK Venugopal has given his consent to eight people who want to sue Kamra for criminal contempt, reports said. Here are more details on this.
Details
Kamra's tweets were in bad taste, crossed lines: A-G
"It is time that people understand attacking the Supreme Court unjustifiably and brazenly will lead to punishment," Attorney General Venugopal has said. Highlighting a certain tweet by Kamra, he called it a "gross insinuation against the entirety of the Supreme Court of India." "Today, people believe that they can boldly and brazenly condemn the Supreme Court in what they believe is freedom of speech."
Tweets
Supreme Court of this country is the 'Supreme joke': Kamra
After the interim bail was granted to Goswami, Kamra posted a series of tweets slamming the apex court of the country. He called the Supreme Court, "Supreme joke of this country." "All lawyers with a spine must stop the use of the prefix 'Honorable' while referring to the Supreme Court or its judges. Honour has left the building long back," he further wrote.
Twitter Post
Here is one of Kamra's tweets
The pace at which the Supreme Court operates in matters of “National Interests” it’s time we replace Mahatma Gandhi’s photo with Harish Salve’s photo...
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) November 11, 2020
Bail
Goswami granted bail in abetment to suicide case
Earlier this month, Arnab Goswami, the founder of Republic TV, was arrested over his alleged involvement in the 2018 suicide case of architect Anvay Naik and his mother. He was previously denied bail by the Bombay High Court. "We must send a message today to the high courts as well. Please exercise your jurisdiction to uphold personal liberty," Justice DY Chandrachud said.
History
Earlier, Kamra was banned by airlines for heckling Goswami
To recall, this is not the first time that Kamra has landed into such a controversy. In January this year, he was banned by several airlines after he heckled Goswami on an IndiGo flight from Mumbai to Lucknow. Apart from IndiGo, other airlines such as Air India and SpiceJet had also barred the comedian from using their services.