New Delhi: Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal on Thursday granted consent for initiating contempt proceedings against stand up comedian Kunal Kamra for his tweets against the Supreme Court for granting bail to journalist Arnab Goswami.
Kamra had also morphed the court's picture and coloured it orange to depict inclination towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) currently in power.
"I find that today people believe that they can boldly and brazenly condemn the Supreme Court of India and its judges by exercising what they believe is their freedom of speech. But under the Constitution, the freedom of speech is subject to the law of contempt and I believe that it is time that people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act,1972," read the consent letter sent to people seeking contempt proceedings.
AG also pointed out two tweets of Kamra which he found objectionable.
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One of them being: "Honour has left the building(Supreme Court) long back" and the second one: "The Supreme Court of this country is the most Supreme joke of this country".
AG added that the tweets are not only bad in taste but they cross the line between honour and contempt.
For the morphed picture where Kamra had shown the building in saffron with a BJP flag, the AG said that alleging that court is not independent and impartial and rather is of the ruling party is "gross insinuation" and amounts to criminal contempt in his opinion and is for the court to decide further.
A special bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Indira Bannerjee had heard Republic TV's editor in chief, Arnab Goswami's bail plea amidst Diwali vacation.
They had granted bail and had observed that he can not be denied personal liberty. The special hearing had attracted a lot of criticism from prominent personalities who felt that Goswami was being given special treatment whereas the common man has to wait for months for his plea to be listed.
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On the reservation of personal liberty, people had also remarked that various other activists and journalists are languishing in jail without material and trial and yet they are not heard. Likewise, Kamra had also tweeted.
After the letters were written to AG for contempt, Kamra had posted Kapil Sibal's argument in court wherein Sibal had said that a Kerela Journalist is also in jail without any material evidence and trial but he was denied bail.
