Comedian Kunal Kamra facing contempt of court charges over his tweets criticising the Supreme Court, in a statement on Friday said that he did not intend on retracting his words or apologising for them.
The statement comes a day after Attorney General K.K. Venugopal granted his consent to initiate the contempt of court proceedings. It is in connection to a series of tweets by comedian Kamra with respect to the interim bail granted to Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami by Supreme Court.
Comedian Kunal Kamra in a statement addressed to the judges of the apex court and the A-G said, “I don’t intent to retract my tweets or apologise for them. I believe they speak for themselves,”
“The Supreme Court of India hasn’t yet declared my tweets anything as of now, but if and when they do, I hope they can have a small laugh before declaring them contempt of court,” Kamra added.
Republic TV’s anchor Arnab Goswami was granted interim bail by the top court on November 11 in the 2018 abetment to suicide case of architect Anvay Naik and his mother.
The two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee during the hearing said, “If we as a constitutional court do not lay down law and protect liberty, then who will.”
Stand-up comic Kunal Kamra on this said, “All that I tweeted was from my view of the Supreme Court of India giving a partial decision in favour of a Prime Time Loudspeaker,”
“My view hasn’t changed because the silence of the Supreme Court of India on matters of other’s personal liberty cannot go uncriticised.” he further added.
A-General KK Venugopal, allowing eight people to file criminal contempt cases against Kamra, in a letter said that he had crossed a line.
In the letter he said, “It is time that people understand attacking the Supreme Court unjustifiably and brazenly will lead to punishment.”
The tweets by Kunal Kamra that the A-G was referring to were: “The Supreme Court of this Country is the most Supreme joke of this country,” and “Honour has left the building long back…”
Comedian Kamra in January this year was banned by several airlines after he had heckled Arnab Goswami on a flight from Mumbai to Lucknow.