Kunal Kamra Supreme Court of India contempt of Court

In these times of social media, anybody is somebody and many “intellectuals” make complete fools of themselves sounding like certified morons. Known as ‘stand-up comedian’ Kunal Kamra, tweeted after Arnab Goswami was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court of India, and in his race to be among the ‘firsts’ to criticize, he put his foot into his mouth guaranteed to get foot- and-mouth (FMD).

Kunal Kamra sent four tweets soon after the Supreme Court’s decision granting bail to Arnab Goswami. His tweets:

  1. The Supreme Court of this country is the most Supreme joke of this country...
  2. The pace at which the Supreme Court operates in matters of “National Interests” it’s time we replace Mahatma Gandhi’s photo with Harish Salve’s photo…
  1. DY Chandrachud is a flight attendant serving champagne to first class passengers after they’re fast tracked through, while commoners don’t know if they’ll ever be boarded or seated, let alone served.
  2. All lawyers with a spine must stop the use of the prefix “Hon’ble” while referring to the Supreme Court or its judges. Honour has left the building long back…

Kunal had posted the controversial tweets in the background of the Supreme Court’s decision to grant interim bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief, Arnab Goswami in the abetment to suicide case he is implicated in.

If I were to accept Kunal as some sort of creature with some cerebral capacity, I could live with the first two tweets.

By sending the other two tweets, he has proven beyond doubt, he is neither a comedian nor a person with intellectual capacity. Instead he believes in ambush tactics and the sooner people understand his modus operandi the better. His followers – I am not asking anyone to un-follow – will be a lot better served if they know how he finds his subject matter and what he does with it.

Remember Kunal ambushing Arnab Goswami on a domestic flight in India and then being banned by some airlines for six months? The two have history.

India’s Attorney General KK Venugopal has already consented to Contempt of Court proceedings against Kunal Kamra.

Of course – Kunal would not apologize. To do so, one needs to possess certain amount of intelligence – at least to realize what you have done.

And of course he would continue to Google and come up with various issues trending – endeavouring to sound someone who has India’s interest in his heart.

Kunal’s response to the initiation of Contempt of Court proceedings against him is hardly surprising. He said

“May I suggest the demonetisation petition, the petition challenging the revocation of J&K’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?‘”, he has added.

Kunal is not a warrior for India, has never been one and perhaps never will be.

India has witnessed a sudden spurt of many so-called “comedians” (a.k.a bhaand), who found livelihoods on the back of Kapil Sharma’s success, with little knack of being able to speak ‘nonsense’  (if that makes any sense) on the microphone, let alone perform any comedy.

When it comes to contempt of court proceedings against Kunal Kamra, it is evident from his response that he does not want to really face the Contempt of Court proceedings and be in a perilous situation to go to jail for some length of time. He says the Apex Court should consider hearing other matters where “parties have not been lucky and privileged” and that he would not “like to jump the queue.”

Kunal refuses to apologize for his tweets criticizing the Supreme Court, commenting in a statement that “silence of the Supreme Court on matters of other’s personal liberty cannot go uncriticized.”

In the statement addressed to the Supreme Court judges and the AG, Kunal has suggested that rather than hearing the contempt plea against him, the Apex Court should consider hearing other matters where “parties have not been lucky and privileged” and that he would not “like to jump the queue.”

Kunal’s erudition speaks volumes when he says he hopes that the judges “have a small laugh” before making their decision.

It further shows up when he says, in his statement (he tweeted):

“I believe I must confess I very much love holding court and enjoying a platform with a captive audience. An audience of the SC judges and the nations top most law officer is perhaps as VIP as 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.”

Attorney General KK Venugopal received at least 10 letters seeking permission to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Kunal. KK Venugopal has granted consent for 8 of those which include letters from a law student Skand Bajpai and advocates Shrirang Katneshwarkar and Abhishek Raskar.

In his consent letter giving the green signal to initiate the Contempt of Court proceedings against Kunal Kamra, AG KK Venugopal stated that the tweets are “highly objectionable” and in his opinion “constitutes criminal contempt of court.”

Whatever the outcome, I hope Kunal will learn to live with his comedy of errors!

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