Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and MR Shah, JJ has issued notice to cartoonist Rachita Taneja and comedian Kunal Kamra in two separate cases relating contemptuous social media posts.
After obtaining Attorney General for India KK Venugopal’s consent a law student had filed a petition against Taneja for initiating proceedings for contempt for publishing contemptuous posts on her social media pages, Sanitary Panels, which allegedly scandalise and undermine the authority of the Supreme Court. The petitioner has filed this contempt petition.
Similarly, an advocate and 2 law students sought for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against the Kamra for publishing contemptuous tweets on his twitter handle.
While giving consent in Kunal Kamra’s case, the Attorney General had noted,
“I find that today people believe that they can boldly and brazenly condemn the Supreme Court of India its judges by exercising what they believe is their freedom of speech. But under the Constitution, the freedom of speech is subject to the law of contempt and I believe that it is time that people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1972.”
The notices are returnable within six weeks and both the contemnors have been spared from appearing in person.
[Shrirang Katneshwarkar v. Kunal Kamra, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 1041, order dated 18.12.2020 and Aditya Kashyap v. Rachita Taneja, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 1042, order dated 18.12.2020]
