The Supreme Court on the 18th of December, issued show cause notices to stand up comedian Kunal Kamra and cartoonist Rachita Taneja.
The notices were issued to both the artists on separate petitions filed in the Apex Court.
A law student named Skand Bajpai, filed a petition and wrote to the Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and sought his consent to the contempt proceedings against the two.
Both Kunal Kamra and Rachita Taneja allegedly denigrated the judiciary and judges.
In a tweet posted on the 11th of November, Kunal Kamra mocked the Supreme Court, for its judgement in the Arnab Goswami case.
The Top Court, on the 11th of November, granted bail to the Republic TV Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami, in a 2018 Abetment to suicide case.
After the judgement, Kunal Kamra mocked the Chief Justice of India (CJI) S.A. Bobde and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
Kamra refused to apologise for his tweets and said they only stated his take on the Supreme Court of India making a “partial” decision. He was referring to the granting of bail to Republic TV Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami in a 2018 case of abetment to suicide.
Mr. Kamra in one such tweet said, “Honour has left the building (Supreme Court) long back’ and ‘Supreme Court of the country is the most Supreme joke of the country.’
In another tweet of Kunal Kamra, posted an image of the SC, with a BJP Flag on top, with a caption “Contempt of Court it seems”
In another tweet, Mr. Kamra said, “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…”
He also targeted Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and said, “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.
*Justice*.”
When he was asked to apologize for his tweet, he wrote to AG K.K. Venugopal and said, “The tweets I recently put out have been found in contempt of court. All that I tweeted was from my view of the Supreme Court of India giving a partial decision in favour of a Prime Time Loudspeaker. My view hasn’t changed because the silence of the Supreme Court of India on matters of other’s personal liberty cannot go uncriticized. I don’t intend to retract my tweets or apologise for them. I believe they speak for themselves.”
The AG K.K. Venugopal examined the tweets of comedian Kunal Kamra and presented his analysis.
Mr. Venugopal said, “The clear implication (of the tweet) would be that SC is biased towards the ruling party BJP and would tailor its judgments for benefit of the ruling party.”
The second tweet depicted the SC as “Sanghi Court of India. ” an apparent reference to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with the flag of the BJP in place of the tricolour atop the court building.
Mr. Venugopal said, “The tweet is calculated to undermine public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court of India.”
Besides Kunal Kamra, the AG also granted consent of contempt proceedings against Rachita Taneja for her comments against Ayodhya case verdict.
According to the tweet of Rachita Taneja, the 2019 Ayodhya Land Dispute verdict of the SC to be in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in exchange for a favour.
The Ayodhya Verdict was given by former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who is currently a Member of Parliament (MP) of Rajya Sabha.
