The Supreme Court Friday issued a contempt notice to stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and cartoonist Rachita Taneja asking them to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for their posts about the Supreme Court and its judges.
A bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan exempted their personal presence in the Court for the time being and asked them to respond to the show-cause notice within six weeks.
The bench which also comprised Justices MR Shah and R Subhash Reddy was considering a batch of petitions seeking contempt action against Kamra and Taneja.
Earlier the Attorney General had consented to initiate contempt proceedings against the duo for their slew of tweets ‘ scandalizing’ the judiciary.
Kamra had tweeted that the Supreme Court was the “most supreme joke” in the country, after which he posted a photoshopped photo of the Supreme Court bathed in saffron cookouts with a flag of the BJP hoisted on it. After a few days, he posted another tweet showing his middle finger to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde.
Cartoonist Taneja had on November 12, tweeted a cartoon depicting the BJP and the Supreme Court as biased towards Republic TV journalist, Arnab Goswami by granting him interim bail. The cartoon read with a reporter in the middle saying, “Tu Janta nahi mera baap kaun hai. (You don’t know who my father is)”
The AG had also consented to initiate contempt proceedings against Taneja.
The consent of either the Attorney General or the Solicitor General is necessary under section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act 1971, for initiating contempt proceedings against a person.
The article was originally published in The Leaflet.
