A Mumbai-based lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee, has sought Attorney General KK Venugopal’s consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra for his series of tweets criticizing the apex court. Reportedly, Kunal made the criticizing tweets against the top court after it had granted bail to the Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.
Advocate Rizwan Siddiquee in his letter has stated that on “11 November 2020, a divisional bench of Supreme Court consisting of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Indira Banerjee had granted bail to noted journalist Mr. Arnab Goswami on merits.”
“During the course of the proceedings and also subsequent to the verdict, Mr. Kunal Kamra a stand-up comedian by profession through his Twitter handle having 1.7 million followers @kunalkamra88 published a series of tweets to scandalizes SC,” the letter reads.
The four tweets by Kamra are as follows:
- The Supreme Court of this country is the most Supreme joke of this country.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
In this background, the letter by lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee stated that the tweets and publications scandalize the Supreme Court and prejudices the minds of millions of people.
“If this kind of unruly and salacious statements are allowed to go unchecked, influencers having millions of social media followers would start making reckless allegations and diabolical statements against the judges” say Siddiquee who has earlier represented actor Kangana Ranaut. Apropos this, Siddiquee has sought initiation of proceedings under Section 15 (1) (b) of the Contempt of Courts Act 1971 read with Rule 3 of the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court, 1975 and initiate criminal contempt against Kunal Kamra.
“The greatest strength of the judiciary is the faith of the people in it, a belief that should not be allowed to erode because of a calculated and well-timed propaganda of a few,” the letter added.
Meanwhile, after several people had pointed out that Kunal’s tweets amounted to contempt of court, Kamra threw a jibe where he said that he was taking inspiration from the Supreme Court to say if people did not like his “contempt of court,” they shouldn’t see it. Kamra referred to Justice Chandrachud who stated during the hearing of Goswami’s bail plea, that if people don’t like his channel, they should not watch it.
“Who am I to scandalize the already compromised,” added Kamra while responding to Siddiqui’s letter.
Contempt of court it seems ??? pic.twitter.com/QOJ7fE11Fy
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) November 11, 2020
