Post Attorney General's consent, contempt of court petition filed in Supreme Court against Kunal Kamra

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court by a bunch of lawyers and law students seeking contempt of court proceedings against stand up comic artist Kunal Kamra after Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal gave his consent for the same..Law students Shrirang Katneshwarkar, Nitika Duhan, and Advocates Amey Abhay Sirsikar, Abhishek Sharan Raskar, and Sattyendra Vinayak Muley in their plea before the top court states that even the AG found the tweets by Kamra to be "highly objectionable."."Instead of hearing contempt plea against me, hear challenges to electoral bonds, abrogation of Article 370," Kunal Kamra refuses to apologise .According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, a private individual can file a contempt of court petition in Supreme Court only after obtaining the consent of the Attorney General or the Solicitor General. Similar consent has to be obtained from the concerned Advocate General of the State when filing a contempt petition before a High Court. .The petition drawn and filed by advocate Nishant Katneshwarkar states that Kamra has a following of 1.7 million people on Twitter and that his "scandalous tweets were seen by his followers and many of them retweeted the same."."All the petitioners viewed the scandalous tweets published by the alleged contemnor and (the) first thought that came in (sic) their mind is to file a criminal contempt against the alleged contemnor,"reads the plea..[Breaking] Attorney General KK Venugopal gives consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kunal Kamra.The plea further states that the tweets were in such "bad taste" that even an ordinary man could say that Kamra was in contempt of court."The citizens of India have highest regard to the courts of law. No law abiding citizen of this country would tolerate such act of publication of tweets by the alleged contemnor," the petition states. .It has also been submitted that when a social media user pointed out to Kamra that the tweets might be in contempt, Kamra was "rude, arrogant and unapologetic."."SC by showing magnanimity and grace had let off the contemnors in the past upon tendering apology. But the conduct of the alleged contemnor is so harsh that the alleged contemnor does not deserve any sympathy at the hands of this Hon’ble Court even in case of tendering apology,"the petition submits..Lawyer seeks Attorney General KK Venugopal's consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra.Attorney General KK Venugopal had, on Thursday, given his consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against Kamra for his tweets.Venugopal, in his consent letter, had stated that the tweets are "highly objectionable" and in his opinion "constitutes criminal contempt of court."The AG maintained that the tweets by Kamra were "not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humor and contempt of the court.".The background of the tweets by Kamra was the Supreme Court order passed on Wednesday by a Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud granting bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief, Arnab Goswami..The four tweets by Kamra which triggered a flurry of requests to the AG for initiating contempt against him were as follows: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 picture which was a morphed image of Supreme Court building giving it an Orange shade and depicting a BJP flag hoisted in the foyer of the Supreme Court.On the morphed picture, AG stated that it was to insinuate that the top court was not impartial but rather existed for the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)."The picture of the Supreme Court building in saffron colour with the BJP flag is a gross insinuation against the entirety of the Supreme Court of India that the SC is not an independent and impartial institution and so too its judges but on the other hand is a Court of the ruling party, the BJP existing for the BJP's benefit. All this in my opinion constitutes criminal contempt of court," said the AG..The AG further added that freedom of speech is subject to contempt of court and it was high time people realized not to criticize the institution "unjustifiedly and brazenly.""Under the constitution, freedom of speech is subject to the law of contempt and i believe that it is time that people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under Contempt of Courts Act, 1972," AG's letter said..Meanwhile, Kamra has refused to apologise for his tweets criticising the Supreme Court reiterating that "silence of the Supreme Court on matters of other's personal liberty cannot go uncriticized."Kamra put out a tweet statement to that effect on Friday in response to Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal granting consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Kamra after at least ten individuals had written to the AG flagging Kamra's tweets.."Instead of hearing contempt plea against me, hear challenges to electoral bonds, abrogation of Article 370," Kunal Kamra refuses to apologise .Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.