Attorney General K K Venugopal grants consent for contempt action against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra

Venugopal said Kamra's tweets were "highly objectionable", "bad in taste" and clearly "cross the line between humour and contempt of court"

Attorney General K K Venugopal on Thursday granted his consent for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra for his "objectionable tweets" against the Supreme Court and its judges, including Justice D Y Chandrachud, for taking up the bail plea of Republic TV's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami.

The AG's consent is a statutory requirement for contempt proceedings in the top court.

Responding to multiple requests for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Kamra, Venugopal said Kanra's tweets were "highly objectionable", "bad in taste" and clearly "cross the line between humour and contempt of court".

He said, "I find that people today believe they can boldly and brazenly condemn the Supreme Court of India and its judges by exercising what they believe is their freedom of speech".

"But under the Constitution, freedom of speech is subject to the law of contempt and I believe it is time people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India unjustifiedly and brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1972," he said.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday afternoon, Kamra said, "Honour has left the building (Supreme Court) long back". In another tweet, he termed the SC as the "most Supreme Joke of the country".

In yet another tweet, he posted the picture Supreme Court in saffron colour with the flag of BJP.

"This is gross insinuation against the entirety of the Supreme Court of India and that the Supreme Court of India is not an independent and impartial institution and so too its judges, but on the other hand is a court of the ruling party, the BJP existing for the BJP's benefit," Venugopal wrote.

The top court on Wednesday heard and granted bail plea by Goswami, a day after the filing of his petition in a case related to 2018 suicide of an interior designer.