Comedian Kunal Kamra on Friday released a letter to judges and K.K. Venugopal, the attorney general, who had granted consent for initiation of contempt of court proceedings against him. Kamra used the opportunity to remind the Supreme Court to take up matters such as demonetisation and the revocation of Article 370.
Kamra was accused of insulting the Supreme Court in tweets he posted over the bail plea of Arnab Goswami on Wednesday.
Kamra tweeted, "No lawyers, No apology, No fine, No waste of space". Kamra wrote in his letter, "All I have tweeted was from my view of the Supreme Court of India giving a partial decision in favour of a prime time loudspeaker [apparent reference to Arnab]. 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 more than any entertainment venue I would perform in, a time slot before the Supreme Court is a scarce commodity.”
No lawyers, No apology, No fine, No waste of space 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/B1U7dkVB1W
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) November 13, 2020
Kamra argued, “My view hasn’t changed because the silence of the Supreme Court on matters of other's personal liberty cannot go uncriticised.”
Kamra wrote, "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 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.”
Kamra tweeted, "... I had asked for replacement of photo of Mahama 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.”
