Chief Justice Opts Out Of Contempt Case Against Comedian Kunal Kamra

Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has recused himself from hearing a contempt petition against stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra.

Mr Kamra faces contempt charges for his tweets about a Supreme Court order that granted bail to TV anchor Arnab Goswami in 2020 in a suicide case from two years before that.

Since he was among the judges who gave that order, Justice Chandrachud said he would not be part of the hearing into the case against Mr Kamra.

Kunal Kamra had put out multiple tweets, raging over the Supreme Court granting interim bail to Republic TV's Arnab Goswami a week after his arrest over the suicide of an architect, Anvay Naik, and his mother in 2018.

A two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee pulled up the Maharashtra government over the journalist's arrest and said: "If we as a constitutional court do not lay down law and protect liberty, then who will?"

Kunal Kamra has had a running feud with Mr Goswami on social media for years. Three years ago, he was banned by several airlines after he heckled the media personality on a flight from Mumbai to Lucknow.

Offering no apology for his tweets about the Supreme Court judgment, Kunal Kamra said his criticism was comedy and that "jokes are not reality and do not claim to be so".

"There is no defence needed for jokes, and it is based on the comedian's perception," Mr Kamra said, adding that his posts on Twitter were not made with the intention of "diminishing faith of people in the judiciary".

However, he said, "I disagree with many decisions of many courts but promise this bench that I will respect any decision with a broad smile and will not vilify this bench or the Supreme Court in this matter because that would actually (amount to) contempt of court."

"I do not believe any authority, including judges, would find themselves unable to discharge their duties only on account of being subject of satire or comedy," the comedian said.

Promptly granting permission to prosecute Mr Kamra, the government's then top law officer KK Venugopal had said that the comedian's tweets were "in bad taste" and "crossed the line between humour and contempt".