No apology for tweets against the SC, says Kamra; court’s silence in personal liberty matters can’t go uncriticized

A day after the Attorney General gave his consent to have a Contempt of Court case filed against Kunal Kamra, the standup comedian said he would not apologise or retract his tweets, which the AG has opined were contemptuous.

In a statement released on Twitter, Kamra said the silence of the Supreme Court on matters of other's personal liberty could not go uncriticized.

Kamra added that the Supreme Court of India had not yet made any declaration about his tweets as of now, but if and when they did, he said, he hoped they would have a small laugh before declaring them contumacious.

Yesterday Attorney General KK Venugopal granted his consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against Kamra for his tweets against the Supreme Court in the wake of the bail granted by it to Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV Arnab Goswami.

"I believe it is time people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971", said Venugopal in his letter to a law student who sought contempt of court proceeding against Kamra.

Kamra had tweeted that the Supreme Court is the "most supreme joke" in the country, after which he posted a photoshopped photo of the Supreme Court bathed in saffron colour with a flag of the BJP hoisted on it.

This is, the AG said, a gross insinuation against the entirety of the Supreme Court. It claims that the Supreme Court is not an independent and impartial institution, but is a court of the ruling party BJP and exists for the BJP's benefit.

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.