SC to proceed with criminal contempt of court case against Kunal Kamra, Rachita Taneja

The Supreme Court on Friday decided to proceed with the criminal contempt of court case against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and cartoonist Rachita Taneja for their tweets criticising the top court. It issued notice to both Kamra and Taneja but dispensed with their personal appearance.

The order was delivered by a three-judge Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah on a slew of contempt of court petitions filed against Kamra and Taneja, Bar & Bench has reported.

On November 12, Attorney General KK Venugopal had granted permission to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kamra based on complaints from various law students and lawyers who had drawn the attention of the law officer to four tweets by Kamra.

Similarly, consent was granted by AG in a plea against Taneja by a law student, Aditya Kashyap. Kashyap, in his petition, stated that tweets by Taneja on her twitter profile, Sanitarypanels has "threatened the very existence of the Supreme Court." Venugopal had observed that her caricatures amounted to "shaking the public confidence in judiciary".

The Attorney General maintained that four tweets posted by Kamra were "not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humor and contempt of the court."