New Delhi: Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal has given his consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra for his latest tweet on Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde.
Allahabad High Court Advocate Anuj Singh had on Thursday requested the AG for consent to initiate proceedings for criminal contempt.
“I have gone through your request for consent under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 against Sh. Kunal Kamra in respect of the tweet dated 18.11.2020 (at 9.46 pm). The depiction of the two fingers, with the legend that he means the middle one, is to deliberately insult the Chief Justice of India which would equally be an insult to the Supreme Court of India itself, which the Chief Justice heads. The said tweet is grossly vulgar and obnoxious, and I have no doubt that it would tend to lower the authority of the Supreme Court of India as well as undermine the confidence that the litigant public have in the institution of the Supreme Court of India itself,” Venugopal wrote.
“In view of the above, I accordingly grant consent under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1975.”
Stand-up comedian Kamra put out a series of tweets earlier also, which “clearly cross the line between humour and contempt of court”, according to Venugopal.