Will Kunal Kamra face contempt proceedings? SC to decide tomorrow
The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on several petitions seeking to initiate contempt of court proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra over his tweets against the top court. Earlier, petitioners had sought the consent of Attorney General KK Venugopal to initiate contempt proceedings, which he granted. The apex court will pronounce orders in the matter tomorrow at 10:30 am. Here's more on this.
On Thursday, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan heard the submissions of advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar, who appeared for one of the petitioners. "All these tweets are scandalous and we had sought consent from the Attorney General," the advocate told the bench. He read out the letter issued by AG Venugopal, which highlighted Kamra's controversial tweets.
On November 12, the AG had granted permission to eight persons to initiate contempt proceedings against Kamra for his alleged distasteful tweets targeting the Supreme Court. He stated that the tweets were in bad taste and disrespected the apex court. "No law-abiding citizen of this country would tolerate such act of publication of tweets by the alleged contemnor (Kamra)," one of the pleas read.
"It is time that people understand attacking the Supreme Court unjustifiably and brazenly will lead to punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1972," AG Venugopal had said in his letter to the lawyers seeking contempt proceedings.
Last month, after journalist Arnab Goswami was granted bail in a abetment to suicide case, Kamra had slammed the apex court through a series of tweets. Calling the SC "Supreme Joke of India," he tweeted, "All lawyers with a spine must stop the use of the prefix 'Honorable' while referring to the Supreme Court or its judges. Honor has left the building long back."
Reacting to the petitions filed against him, he said, "My view has not changed because the silence of the Supreme Court of India on matters of other's personal liberty cannot go uncriticized (sic)." "All that I tweeted was from my view of the Supreme Court of India giving a partial decision in favor of a Prime Time Loudspeaker," he wrote in an open letter.
