The apex court will decide on Friday the petition to initiate contempt proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra and comic artist Rachita Taneja. The petitions came up for hearing on Thursday before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan in which advocate Nishant R. Katneshwarkar, appearing for one of the petitioners, claimed that Kamra had made derogatory tweets for the judiciary.
Katenshwarkar said that all these tweets are abusive and we had sought permission from Attorney General KK Venugopal in this case to initiate contempt proceedings that have been received. On the other hand, due to the objectionable tweet, the Attorney General has also given his approval to the petition filed to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Rachita Taneja.
During the hearing through video conference, senior advocate PS Narasimha said that the Attorney General thinks that such tweets were done to erode people's trust towards the judiciary. Venugopal said every tweet associated with Taneja's cartoons was in contempt of the top court. Explain that to initiate contempt proceedings against a person, the court has to seek the consent of the Attorney General or Solicitor General under Section 15 of the Contempt Act-1971.
It may be noted that to initiate contempt proceedings against anyone, Section-15 of the Contempt Act-1971 requires the approval of the Attorney General or Solicitor General. One of the petitions filed against Kamra has been filed by Srirang Kataneswarkar. According to PTI, Kamra made these tweets on 11 November when Arnab Goswami challenged the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the anticipatory bail plea by the Bombay High Court in the year 2018 for abetment to suicide.