New Delhi : The Supreme Court today heard a petition filed against cartoonist Rachita Taneja and comedian Kunal Kamra for initiating criminal contempt proceedings due to objectionable tweets. The Supreme Court has issued show cause notices to Kunal Kamra and Rachita Taneja. A bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan took cognizance of the fact that the plea of law student Aditya Kashyap, against Taneja, has been approved by Attorney General K. K. Venugopal.
Hearing the plea seeking contempt proceedings, the Supreme Court has issued a show cause notice to cartoonist Rachita Taneja and comedian Kunal Kamra to file their reply within 6 weeks. The apex court says that Kunal Kamra and Rachita Taneja need not appear in court in person.
During the hearing through the video conference, senior advocate P. S. Narasimha told the apex court that the merits of the case were not even discussed in the tweet partly but the court proceedings were questioned. The lawyer said that we have a clear opinion of the Attorney General that a contempt case is made here. He said that the Attorney General is of the opinion that such tweets were done with a view to eroding people’s trust in the judiciary.
In another case, the bench, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar claimed that Kunal Kamra had made derogatory tweets for the judiciary. He said, “All these tweets are derogatory and we had sought the consent of the Attorney General in this matter.” Venugopal’s letter read in the court giving consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra. To this, the bench asked the lawyer not to read the tweets of the comedian’s alleged contempt here as the court had already seen Venugopal’s letter.
