KK Venugopal gives consent to initiate contempt proceedings against creator of comic Sanitary Panels

On Tuesday, Attorney-General KK Venugopal granted consent to begin contempt of court proceedings against Rachita Taneja, the creator of the comic Sanitary Panels, for two tweets allegedly against the Supreme Court, according to several media reports. A letter seeking permission for contempt proceedings was written by law student Aditya Kashyap, reported Bar and Bench. The first tweet submitted by Kashyap featured a comic posted to Twitter by Taneja following the Supreme Court’s decision to grant interim bail to journalist Arnab Goswami, as per Bar and Bench. It depicts the SC, a journalist (presumed to be Goswami) and the BJP with the text, “Tu jaanta nahi mera baap kaun hai (you don’t know who my father is).”

Venugopal said that this tweet implies that the Supreme Court is biased towards the Bharatiya Janata Party and is tailoring its judgments to suit the party, reported Live Law. The second tweet allegedly called the apex court the “Sanghi Court of India”. “The tweet is clearly calculated to undermine the public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court of India,” Venugopal said, reported Live Law. “I am satisfied that each of the tweets with cartoons attached is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India, hence I grant my consent,” the Venugopal added. In November, Venugopal granted consent for the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against comedian Kunal Kamra for his tweets which allegedly criticised the SC. This was in response to a letter submitted by three lawyers who claimed that Kamra had attempted to “lower the authority of the Supreme Court of India” through tweets posted after the SC granted interim bail to the comedian. Venugopal also previously declined consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan for his tweets in which he was critical of Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde being provided a special helicopter by the Madhya Pradesh government, saying the activist-lawyer later expressed regret. The consent of either the Attorney-General or the Solicitor-General is necessary, under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, for initiating contempt proceedings against a person. With inputs from PTI