[Breaking] Attorney General KK Venugopal gives consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kunal Kamra

Attorney General KK Venugopal, on Thursday, gave his consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against stand-up comic Kunal Kamra for his tweets against the Supreme Court of India. .Venugopal in his consent letter stated that the tweets are "highly objectionable" and in his opinion "constitutes criminal contempt of court." .The Attorney General 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 Kunal 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..[Breaking] "If we don't interfere in this case today, we will walk on a path of destruction", Supreme Court grants bail to Arnab Goswami.The four tweets by Kamra which forms the basis of Siddiquee's request are 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..The AG received a total 10 letters seeking permission to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kamra of which he granted consent for 8 including to law student Skand Bajpai and advocates Shrirang Katneshwarkar and Abhishek Raskar..On the morphed picture of the Supreme Court posted by Kamra, 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 was 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. .Links to the contemptuous tweets: .AG Venugopal had recently declined consent to prosecute actor Swara Bhasker and journalist Rajdeep Sardesai for their tweets criticising the Supreme Court. .He had also argued against punishing advocate Prashant Bhushan for contempt of court in relation to the activist lawyer's tweets criticising the top court and Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde. .[Read AG KK Venugopal's letter]