Kunal Kamra's News Statements Against Supreme Court Be Produced In Ongoing Contempt Proceedings, Attorney General Suggests

Replying to a letter seeking consent to initiate contempt action against Kunal Kamra for his recent remarks against the Supreme Court, Attorney General for India KK Venugopal suggested that Kamra's fresh statements be placed on record before the SC in the ongoing contempt proceedings against him.

The AG was replying to a letter written by lawyer Shashank Shekhar Jha seeking consent to initiate criminal contempt against Kamra over a recent video clip in which he was seen insulting the Court in response to the pending contempt case against him.

The AG has stated that, if the Court deems fit, those statements can be relevant as an aggravating factor insofar as the question of punishment is concerned.

The Attorney General in his letter stated that he has already granted consent for initiation of proceedings for criminal contempt against Kama, which are currently pending before the Court.

The Attorney General had in November 2020 granted his consent for initiation of contempt proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra, over his tweets about the Supreme Court in the wake of its order granting interim bail to Arnab Goswami.

Following that, petition were filed in the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against the comedian, on which the Court issued notice to him

With regard to the fresh statements said to have been made by Mr. Kama in respect of those very contempt proceedings which are pending against him, AG has stated that it would be appropriate for Jha to file a suitable application to place the statements before the Supreme Court in the pending matter.

With regard to the  statements and tweets from 11th November 2020 referred by Jha, the AG has observed that the time period for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings in respect of those statements has now elapsed in terms of Section 20 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. Therefore no question of granting consent so far as the statements said to have been made on 11.11.2020 would arise.

Jha in his letter had pointed out that when one twitter user pointed the tweet to be a contempt of the court, Kamra rather than accepting his mistake and deleting his tweet responded with another tweet with insulting the Court.