The Supreme Court on Friday issued contempt notice to comic artist Rachita Taneja over her caricatures of the judiciary in tweets and asked her to file a reply within six weeks.
A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah issued notice on the petition filed by law student Aditya Kashyap.The bench noted that the Attorney General has granted consent for initiating contempt action.Appearing for the petitioner, senior Advocate PS Narasimha said that the tweets were intended to malign and scandalise the Supreme Court.Attorney General KK Venugopal had granted consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Taneja saying that her caricatures amounted to “shaking the public confidence in judiciary”.
The tweet is clearly calculated to undermine the public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court of India,” he had said.The petitioner was a law student who sought initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against the comic artist.