Attorney General KK Venugopal has again granted his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra. The consent was granted in light of the stand-up comedian’s latest tweet against Chief Justice of India SA Bobde.
The fresh letter seeking action against Kamra was based on his latest tweet in which he was seen holding up his fingers while in an aircraft with the text:
“One of these 2 fingers is for CJI Arvind Bobde…ok let me not confuse you it’s the middle one.”
While granting consent to Singh for contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra, AG Venugopal noted that the tweet against the CJI was “grossly obnoxious” and would “equally be an insult to the Supreme Court of India.”
“The said tweet is grossly vulgar and obnoxious and I have no doubt that it would tend to lower the authority of the Supreme Court of India as well as undermine the confidence that the litigant public has on the institution itself”
the AG in his letter granting consent
Case Background
The complainant, Anuj Singh, is an advocate at the Allahabad High Court. He had requested AG Venugopal to grant consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra, claiming that the tweet had gone viral and brought disrepute to the institution of the judiciary.
The following were the four tweets for which the AG had granted consent:
1. The Supreme Court of this country is the most Supreme joke of this country…
2 .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…
3. DY Chandrachud is a flight attendant serving champagne to first class passengers after they’re fast tracked through, while commoners don’t know if they’ll ever be boarded or seated, let alone served.
4. All lawyers with a spine must stop the use of the prefix “Hon’ble” while referring to the Supreme Court or its judges. Honour has left the building long back…
Kamra also posted a morphed image of the Supreme Court building with an orange shade and depicting a BJP flag hoisted in the foyer of the Supreme Court.
The background of those tweets was an order passed by the Supreme Court granting bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief, Arnab Goswami.
The Attorney General had maintained that the four tweets by Kamra were “not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humor and contempt of the court.”
