Attorney General of India KK Venugopal on September 30, 2020 has declined to give consent to initiate the contempt proceedings against the senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh for his last two tweets. Attorney General has rejected the request which is made by Advocate Sumanth Sudan about his consent for initiation of action of criminal contempt against Digvijaya Singh.
The letter which is sent by the Advocate Suman Sudan to attorney General refers to the tweet which is published by Digvijay Singh on his Twitter page.
"I have given careful consideration to tweets this statement made or wholly uncalled for however I do not believe that they merit action for criminal contempt of the Supreme Court of India", read the response from Attorney General which is sent to Advocate Suman Sudan.
Digvijay Singh tweeted the following on September 15, 2020:- "In Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath has formed Special Security Force under which the police can raid someone's house and arrest anyone without any warrant and without the permission of the Government; no one can ever go to the court." And the second tweet was “Does the Indian Constitution allows such a law? Will the country’s judiciary consider such a law unconstitutional? Or will it decide in favor of the government under pressure? Let's see.”
The Advocate General has lastly said that “I accordingly decline consent”
Under Section 15 of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 read along with Rule 3 of Contempt proceedings of the Supreme Court, 1975 the Supreme Court can take cognizance of criminal contempt on its own motion made by Attorney General or the Solicitor General for initiating the criminal contempt proceedings against any person.
Recently, Attorney General K K Venugopal has declined to grant consent to initiate the contempt proceedings against actress Swara Bhaskar. He had rejected the application filed by the Advocate Arjun Saxena seeking the consent of Attorney General under Section 15 of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 read along with Rule 3 of Contempt proceedings of the Supreme Court, 1975 for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Sawara Bhaskar.
