Supreme Court issues notice of contempt to Comic Kunal Kamra and Cartoonist Rachita Taneja

New Delhi 18/12: The Supreme Court of India has issued contempt notices to Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and Cartoonist Rachita Taneja for criticizing the court. The top court seeks an answer from both within six weeks.

Comedian and the cartoonist face the cases for criticizing the Supreme court for granting bail to Republic Tv’s Arnab Goswami. Kamra via several tweets had shown his displeasure over the court. Whereas Rachita had published an illustration where she had criticized the court over the same case.

Kamra’s case over his “scandalous tweets” and Rachita’s “insult to institution” case was headed by  Justice Ashok Bhushan. Earlier Attorney General KK Venugopal had given his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Ms Taneja for her illustrations against the Supreme Court.

This is not the first time that the court is issuing notice to people for expressing their views. Earlier this year Lawyer Prashant Bhushan was fined Re 1 for his tweets that allegedly didn’t go down well with the court. Actor Suriya was also served a notice by Madras High court for tweeting against the court for conducting JEE AND NEET examination during Covid 19.

We live in such a time that the topmost court in India can’t take criticism from people. The notice served by the court is a way to suppress the voice of people. In a free and democratic country like India, why is it a crime to express your views? Is this the Freedom of speech we are talking about?