SC to decide on Friday plea to initiate contempt against comic artist Rachita Taneja

Kashyap had filed the petition through lawyer Namit Saxena, who is an advocate-on-record, on December 5 after receiving the written consent of the Attorney General for initiation of proceedings against her for three posts with images which are allegedly outrageous, contemptuous, carry insinuations and deliberately attribute motives to judges of Supreme Court and their judgments.

The Supreme Court would pronounce its order on Friday on a plea seeking initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against comic artist Rachita Taneja for her alleged objectionable tweets against the apex court. A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah on Thursday took note of the fact that Attorney General K K Venugopal has consented to the plea filed by law student Aditya Kashyap against the comic artist. In the proceeding conducted via video conferencing, the top court was told by senior advocate P S Narasimha that the tweets have no iota of discussion on the merits of the case itself but is intended to scandalise the court. ''We have the clear opinion of the Attorney General where he is of the view that a prima facie contempt is made out,'' the senior lawyer said. The Attorney General has opined that the tweets are ''deliberately intended to shake the confidence of the public in the judiciary'', Narasimha and advocate Namit Saxena submitted. The top court would now pronounce the order on Friday whether to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against her. Venugopal, in his consent letter to Kashyap for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Taneja, said, ''I am satisfied that each one of the tweets with the cartoons attached to them is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India, and hence I give my consent to initiate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 in regard to each one of the tweets. Kashyap had filed the petition through lawyer Namit Saxena, who is an advocate-on-record, on December 5 after receiving the written consent of the Attorney General for initiation of proceedings against her for three posts with images which are allegedly outrageous, contemptuous, carry insinuations and deliberately attribute motives to judges of Supreme Court and their judgments. Taneja's posts, the petition said, have gone viral and have been widely shared and subscribed by people attacking the institution of judiciary.

Taneja, being a social media influencer, has thousands of followers across various platforms, it said. The Attorney General in his written consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings, had stated that these posts are intended to denigrate the Supreme Court and lower its authority in the eyes of the public, and thus the cartoons were in contempt of the top court.

The consent of either the Attorney General or the Solicitor General is necessary, under section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, for initiating contempt proceedings against a person. Criminal contempt of the Supreme Court is punishable with fine up to Rs 2,000 and imprisonment up to six months.

In the petition, details of the three posts and images which are allegedly derogatory and contemptuous have been mentioned. The plea has sought direction that Taneja be restrained from publishing contemptuous posts on social media which scandalise and undermine the authority of the apex court.

The petitioner said the plea highlight three particularly outrageous and contemptuous posts that were crafted, posted and shared by Taneja through her social media handles (@sanitarypanels) on various platforms with the malicious intent of scandalising and lowering the authority of the apex court and to prejudice and interfere with the due course of judicial proceedings. Kashyap is pursuing LLB at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law in Patiala, Punjab.