Attorney General gives consent to initiate contempt proceedings against creator of comic Sanitary Panels

On 1 November, the Attorney General KK Venugopal granted consent to start contempt of court proceedings against Rachita Taneja, the creator of the comic Sanitary Panels, for two tweets against the Supreme Court, reports Bar and Bench.

A letter seeking permission for contempt proceedings was written by a law student, Aditya Kashyap. The first tweet submitted by the law student features a comic posted to Twitter by Taneja following the Supreme Court's decision to grant interim bail to journalist Arnab Goswami. It depicts the SC, a journalist (presumed to be Goswami) and the BJP with the text, "Tu jaanta nahi mera baap kaun hai (you don't know who my father is)." The AG said that this tweet implies that the SC is biased towards the Bharatiya Janata Party and is tailoring its judgments to suit the party, reports Live Law.

The second tweet allegedly calls the SC the "Sanghi Court of India". "The tweet is clearly calculated to undermine the public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court of India," the AG said, reports Live Law.

"I am satisfied that each of the tweets with cartoons attached is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India, hence I grant my consent," the AG added.

In November, the AG granted consent for the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra for his tweets which allegedly criticised the SC. This was in response to a letter submitted by three lawyers who claimed that Kamra had attempted to “lower the authority of the Supreme Court of India” through tweets posted after the SC granted interim bail to the comedian.