Comedian Kunal Kamra to face contempt of court charges for 'objectionable' tweets on SC

Mumbai-based comedian Kunal Kamra will face criminal contempt of court for posting unsavoury comments on the Supreme Court.

New Delhi: Comedian Kunal Kamra will face criminal contempt of court proceedings for his tweets on the Supreme Court in the wake of the interim bail that the top court granted to journalist Arnab Goswami on Wednesday.

Attorney General KK Venugopal has given his consent to initiate court proceedings against the comedian saying the tweets are in "bad taste" and it is time that people understand that attacking the apex court brazenly will attract punishment.

"I have gone through each one of the tweets which you have annexed for consent to proceed by way of criminal contempt against Kunal Kamra. The tweets which I am extracting below are not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humour and contempt of the court," the Attorney General said in his letter to one of the applicants who had sought for initiation of contempt proceedings against Kamra, PTI reported.

"I therefore grant consent to proceed by way of initiating contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra," Venugopal said.

In one of the letters written to the Attorney General, three lawyers have claimed that Kunal Kamra allegedly attempted to "lower the authority of the Supreme Court of India" through his tweets after the apex court's order to grant bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.

In another letter, a Pune-based lawyer called Kamra's comments unsavoury and also objected to the circulation of a morphed image of the Supreme Court which had been posted on social media.

The apex court had Wednesday granted interim bail to journalist Arnab Goswami in the 2018 abetment to suicide case, saying it will be a "travesty of justice" if personal liberty is curtailed.