UP Court Issues Notice To Comedian Kunal Kamra On Revision Petition Against Dismissal Of Plea For FIR Over Alleged Insult To National Flag

The Court of ASJ Anuradha Kushwaha issued notice on the revision petition on 11^th February, 2021. The matter has been fixed for hearing on March 2, 2021.

Kamra had posted in Twitter a picture of the Supreme Court dressed in saffron colour with the flag of the ruling party, the BJP. He also published several controversial remark against the Supreme Court such as 'honour has left the building (Supreme Court) long back' and 'Supreme Court of the country is the most Supreme joke of the country'.

The instant case is filed against the Magistrate's order which had held that the offence was not committed within its local jurisdiction.

Advocate Saurabh Tiwari had approached the Court of Magistrate stating that Kamra's actions hurt the feeling of the people of this country and cause contempt and disrepute to the Indian National Flag.

The lawyer was aggrieved by non-registration of a FIR by the local Police and had sought a direction thereof.

Dissatisfied with dismissal of those proceedings, Tiwari has moved the Sessions Court stating that a FIR may be registered in Varanasi as the impugned actions were committed on a social media platform and hence, the offence is committed at all such places where such publication is seen on Twitter.

"It is clear that offence committed on social media platform (Public Platform) and against Indian National Flag then question of jurisdiction cannot be raised because offence presumed to be committed (In Varanasi also)," Tiwari said.

He has urged that Kamra should be booked for offences under Section 2 of the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act, 1971 and under Sections 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief) of IPC.

It may be noted that the Supreme Court's bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah has already issued notice to Kamra on the petitions seeking criminal contempt action against him.

The Attorney General for India had also remarked that Kamra's tweets are 'highly objectionable' and stated 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.

However, Kamra has submitted before the Top Court that his tweets were not published with the intention of insulting the Court but to draw its attention to and prompt an engagement with issues that he believes are relevant to the Indian democracy.

So far as the allegations of insulting the national flag are concerned, Kamra said that his tweets were meant as a joke for people who share the same perception as him. However, with the growing culture of intolerance in the country, assault on freedom of speech and expression has become a common case.