Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi on Friday said criticism of the court does not amount to contempt. Appearing for cartoon artist Rachita Taneja for her tweets against the judiciary, Rohatgi said the court’s majesty cannot fall due to mere criticism, and that the foundation of the court is much stronger.
The three-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah heard the plea seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Taneja at the request of a law student.
While hearing the plea, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal granted consent for such proceedings because the stated tweets portrayed the Supreme Court was biased in favour of the BJP. The court had issued show-cause notice to the cartoonist with a direction to file a reply within 6 weeks. The court also said no reply has been filed on behalf of Taneja.
Justice Shah asked Rohatgi whether he is ready to file a reply. To this, the Senior Advocate said he will file a reply in 3 weeks. Rohatgi then requested the Court that this matter be kept separate from Kamra’s matter and requested for a different date of hearing, which is scheduled after three weeks.