On Thursday, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud announced his decision not to hear petitions seeking to hold stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra in contempt of court due to some of his tweets.
CJI DY Chandrachud recuses
As soon as the case came before the bench that consisted of him and Justice P S Narasimha, the CJI stated, “Let the matter be listed before a bench of which I am not a member.”
The CJI refused, saying, “No, the comments were made on the order, which I have passed,” despite the counsel’s assurances that there would be no issue if he heard it.
The tweet Kamra referred to was reportedly in response to the Supreme Court’s judgement in November 2020 granting relief to Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, who had appealed the Bombay High Court’s decision to deny him interim bail in the 2018 Anway Naik aiding suicide case.
Shrirang Katneshwarkar, a law student, filed one of the petitions asking the court to take action against Kamra, claiming that Kamra’s tweets “scandalised” the supreme court and “further reduced” its stature.
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Attorney General KK Venugapal gives consent to initiate contempt proceedings
A person cannot be held in contempt of court without the Attorney General’s or Solicitor General’s approval, according to Section 15 of
The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. As a result, the petitioners had previously spoken with Attorney General K K Venugopal, who had approved the request.
The tweets “are not merely in bad taste but obviously transcend the boundary between comedy and contempt of court,” Venugopal had stated in granting consent.
“I find that many today think that they can use their alleged freedom of speech to boldly and blatantly criticise the Supreme Court of India and its judges. But the freedom of speech is constrained by the law of contempt under the Constitution, and I think it’s time for people to realise that blatantly and unjustifiably criticising the Supreme Court of India would result in penalty under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1972,” he stated.
He added that “the Supreme Court should trust the public not to form its opinions of the court on the basis of a few jokes on Twitter,” just as the court “appreciates the faith the public invests in it (and wants to safeguard it by exercising its criminal contempt authority).”
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