UPDATE: According to Bar & Bench, the attorney general has granted permission to begin contempt proceedings against Kunal Kamra, saying that the tweets were “highly exceptionable.”

Kunal Kamra finds himself in the eye of yet another storm, with an advocate writing to attorney general K.K. Venugopal seeking his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against the comedian for his tweets on the Supreme Court granting interim bail to Arnab Goswami. Mumbai-based lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee said in his letter that if Kamra’s “unruly and salacious” were allowed to go unchecked, then it would encourage social media influencers to start making “reckless allegations and diabolical statements against the judges and the courts who do not decide cases in their favor or in accordance to their liking”.

Goswami was released on bail yesterday after his arrest in a 2018 abetment to suicide case. Many social media uses criticised the court’s quick intervention, noting that other journalists and activists jailed by BJP led governments were not afforded the same courtesy and protection. Kamra also reacted to the news with pointed criticism, saying that the “Supreme Court of this country is the most Supreme joke of this country…”

He followed that up with a string of tweets taking aim at the apex court, three of which Siddiqui has also mentioned in his letter. These included one which compared Justice D.Y. Chandrachud to flight attendant, while another stated that “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…”

The letter adds that in addition to these tweets, Kamra has even tried to “outrage the integrity of the Supreme Court” by posting an image of the court building in orange shade and with a BJP flag. According to the Bar & Bench law blog, two Pune-based lawyers and a law student have also sought Venugopal’s consent to initiate contempt proceedings against the comedian.

Speaking to DeadAnt, Kamra was sanguine about the potential contempt of court proceedings. “If you cannot criticise the court in 2020, then I think you should just tape your mouth shut,” he said.