Kunal Kamra, a stand-up comedian twitted on social media about the Supreme Court, its judges, and the attorney general. He addressed Supreme Court as The Supreme joke of the country because of its granting interim bail to Arnab Goswami. He also posted a picture wherein it was shown that the Supreme Court is dressed in saffron colour with a flag of BJP which indicated that the court is not independent but is the court of some ruling party.
Because of these tweets, a number of letter petition were sent to the attorney general by various lawyers and students stating that it will cause a bad impression of our apex court on the minds of the people if such an act is left unchecked. It will also give courage to other influencers of social media to make such a post against the court.
On November 12, 2020, the attorney general gave consent to initiate proceedings against Kunal for criminal contempt under Section 15(1)(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. It held that people are taking undue advantage of their freedom of speech without taking into consideration that such freedom is subject to the law of contempt. They are doing anything in the name of freedom of speech which is unjustified.
On November 13, 2020, Kunal held that any action against him is not going to change his view and he is not going to withdraw or apologize for his tweets. Further, he added that instead of wasting time in carrying out this matter, the court should better concentrate on such matters which need more attention and are pending like demonetization of the petition, matter of the legality of electoral bonds, and many other matters.
