A final year law student has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking contempt of court action against comic artist Rachita Taneja for her tweets “critiquing the judiciary” after Attorney General KK Venugopal granted consent on December 1.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, while granting his consent to Kashyap for filing the petition, had stated Taneja’s tweets Crticising Judiciary portrayed the Supreme Court of India as biased towards the ruling party.
Aditya Kashyap, the petitioner, has stated in his petition that tweets Crticising Judiciary by Taneja on her twitter profile, Sanitarypanels has “threatened the very existence of the Supreme Court.”
Averments in the Plea
The petition filed through advocate Namit Saxena states that Taneja wields considerable influence through her “social media handles and whatever content she posts on these platforms gets immediately multiplied through various other users.”
Pointing out one of the “contemptuous” tweets Crticising Judiciary, the plea in Supreme Court states that the tweet had building of the Supreme Court drawn with the words “Sanghi Court of India” and this “threatened very existence of this Hon’ble Court by replacing the word ‘Supreme’ with ‘Sanghi’.”
“That the expression ‘Sanghi’ is in fact used to connote Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). The alleged contemnor has expressed that the Supreme Court of the country is no more supreme but has transformed into a Sanghi Court,” reads the plea.
It further states that it is trite law that the law of contempt of court is not to “protect the institution of judiciary but to protect rights of citizens and to have an independent and fearless judiciary.”
Expression ‘Sanghi’ is used to connote Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). The alleged contemnor has expressed that the Supreme Court of the country is no more supreme but has transformed into a Sanghi Court while Crticising Judiciary.
