Top Court issues notice to Comedian Kunal Kamra and cartoonist Rachita Taneja

Standup comedian and cartoonist Rachita Taneja have received the contempt notices from ghe Supreme Court and asked to respond in 6 weeks for their criticism on towards Top Court on their Twitter handles. Attorney General KK Venugopal had given the consent filing pleas against Kamra.

The pleas had come up on Thursday before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan which heard the submissions of advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar, who appeared for one of the petitioners, and claimed that Kamra had posted several tweets which are criticising the judiciary system of India.

“All these tweets are scandalous and we had sought consent from the attorney general,” Katneshwarkar told the bench, which also comprised justices R S Reddy and M R Shah.

The contempts of the Attorney General are necessary under section 15 of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, for beginning the contempt proceedings against a person.

The attorney general had granted consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra, saying the tweets are in “bad taste” and it is time that people understand that attacking the apex court brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1972.

One of the petitions has been filed by law student Shrirang Katneshwarkar and others, who have claimed that Kamra had started publishing tweets on November 11, when the top court was hearing the appeal of Republic TV Chief Editor Arnab Goswami against the Bombay High Court’s order who rejected his plea seeking interim bail in a the abetment to suicide case in 2018.