'No lawyers, no apology, no fine': Comic Kunal Kamra's message to SC judges

Comedian Kunal Kamra, who is facing contempt of court charges after a series of tweets criticising the Supreme Court for granting interim bail to Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami, has refused to apologise for his remarks.Kamra took to Twitter to say, "No lawyers, no apology, no fine, no waste of space." 

Comedian Kunal Kamra, who is facing contempt of court charges after a series of tweets criticising the Supreme Court for granting interim bail to Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami, has refused to apologise for his remarks. Kamra took to Twitter to say, "No lawyers, no apology, no fine, no waste of space." 

Attorney General KK Venugopal had yesterday given his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Kamra for his tweets. Venugopal stated that the tweets by Kamra were "not only in bad taste but clearly cross the line between humour and contempt of the court." In his consent letter, the attorney general said that Kamra’s tweets were “highly objectionable” and it “constitutes criminal contempt of court”.

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court by a bunch of lawyers and law students seeking contempt of court proceedings against stand up comic artist Kunal Kamra after AG Venugopal gave his consent for the same. Stating that the posts were in bad taste, the petition said that 'no law abiding citizen of this country would tolerate such act of publication of tweets by the alleged contemnor."

Responding to the move, Kamra said: "The tweets I recently put out have been found in contempt of court. 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. I believe I must confess I very much love holding court and enjoying a platform with a captive audience. An audience of Supreme Court judges and the nation’s top most law officer is perhaps as VIP an audience as it gets. But I realise that more than any entertainment venue I would perform in, a time slot before the Supreme Court is a scarce commodity. 

"My view hasn’t changed because the silence of the Supreme Court of India on matters of other’s personal liberty cannot go uncriticised. I don’t intend to retract my tweets or apologise for them. I believe they speak for themselves. I wish to volunteer having the time that would be allotted to the hearing of my contempt petition (20 hours at the very least, if Prashant Bhushan’s hearing is anything to go by), to other matters and parties who have not been as lucky and privileged as I am to jump the queue." 

"May I suggest the demonetisation petition, the petition challenging the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, the matter Of the legality of electoral bonds or countless other matters that are more deserving of time and attention. To slightly misquote Senior Advocate Harish Salve: ‘Will the heavens fall if more salient matters are allotted my time?’"

"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. Also in one of my tweets I had asked for replacement of the photo of Mahatma Gandhi at the Supreme Court of India with that of Harish Salve. I would like to add that Pandit Nehru photo should also be replaced with Mahesh Jethmalani," Kamra said.