In response to a letter written by law student Aditya Kashyap, Attorney General KK Venugopal has granted his consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings against comic artist Rachita Taneja, for a cartoon uploaded on her Twitter handle that depicted the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Apex Court and a reporter along with a caption that read the text “Tu JantaNahi Mera Baap Kaun Hai”.
The AG has also made note of another tweet that read “Arnab gets bail, real journalists get jail, independent judiciary is fail” along with a picture of Supreme Court with the engraving “Sanghi Court of India”. The tweet by Taneja had come after the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.
Attorney General Venugopal stated that the tweet by Taneja implies that the Supreme Court is biased towards the ruling party and he is satisfied that each of the tweets with cartoons attached is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India.
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According to Aditya Kashyap, Taneja’s tweets and posts scandalises the Supreme Court, insinuates and attributes motives behind judgments of the Court clearly violating the line between humour and contempt of the Court. These posts not only erode the trust in the institution of justice by casting aspersions on the justice delivery mechanism but also interferes with the administration of justice. The tweets and posts are based on the distorted facts, inspired by malice, and amount to committing of criminal contempt.