Parliamentary panel grills Twitter over 'obscene' tweets by Kunal Kamra targeting SC, CJI

Kamra has refused to retract his controversial tweets against the Supreme Court or apologise for them

A day after Twitter apologised to the Parliamentary panel for wrongly showing Ladakh in China, Parliamentary committee led by Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday grilled the US-based microblogging site over 'obscene' tweets by Kunal Kamra targeting the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India.

Twitter India representatives deposed before the Joint Committee of Parliament on Data Protection Bill on Thursday. The panel sought a reply from Twitter within seven days.

"It is shameful that Twitter is allowing its platform for obscene remarks like the one by stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra against the Supreme Court and the CJI," Lekhi told reporters in Delhi.

"Twitter is allowing its platform to be misused for abusing top constitutional authorities, such as Supreme Court and CJI," she added.

She said that members of the committee across the political spectrum, including Congress MP Vivek Tankha, BSP MP Ritesh Pandey and BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, grilled Twitter representatives on this issue.

Lekhi also said that the explanation of Twitter about banning accounts and deleting tweets was found to be inadequate.

Earlier, Attorney General K K Venugopal gave consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra for a series of tweets posted after the apex court gave interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami. Several lawyers filed complaints against Kamra.

Kamra had refused to retract his controversial tweets against the Supreme Court or apologise for them, saying that he believes they "speak for themselves".