A-G grants consent for contempt action over 'grossly vulgar and obnoxious' tweet by Kunal Kamra against CJI

Attorney General K K Venugopal on Friday granted consent for initiating contempt against comedian Kunal Kamra for a fresh "grossly vulgar and obnoxious" tweet against the Chief Justice of India.

He had earlier granted a similar nod for contempt against Kamra for other tweets. The A-G's consent is a statutory requirement for filing a contempt petition.

The A-G's consent came to a request made by advocate Anuj Singh in respect of tweet posted by Kamra on November 18.

In response, Venugopal said, "The depiction of two fingers, with the legend that he means the middle one, is to deliberately insult the Chief Justice of India, which would equally be an insult to the Supreme Court of India itself, which the CJI heads".

Granting consent under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, he said, "the said tweet is grossly vulgar and obnoxious and I have no doubt that it would tend to lower the authority of the Supreme Court of India as well as undermine the confidence that the litigant public have in the institution of the SC itself."

Venugopal had on November 12 gave his nod for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against stand-up comedian Kamra for his "objectionable tweets" against the Supreme Court and its judges, including Justice D Y Chandrachud for taking up bail plea by Republic TV's Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.