SC to decide tomorrow on contempt plea against cartoonist Rachita Taneja
Dec 17, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 17 : The Supreme Court will decide tomorrow a petition seeking criminal contempt of court proceedings against cartoonist Rachita Taneja for her illustrations of the Supreme Court of India.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said it will pass an order tomorrow.
During the hearing, senior advocate PS Narasimha, appearing for the petitioner, sought contempt proceedings against Taneja submitting they have a clear opinion of the Attorney general where he is of the view that three instances of cartoons in the complaint.
There are clear allegations from her tweets that the Supreme Court is biased in favour of the ruling party, Narasimha said. Tweet "clearly calculated to undermine the judiciary", he added.
Attorney General KK Venugopal had earlier given consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Taneja for her illustrations against the Supreme Court. The cartoonist had tweeted a series of illustrations, which Venugopal said was a "gross insinuation" against the top court of the country and "audacious assault and insult to the institution".
The Attorney General, while granting sanction for contempt proceedings, had observed that the cartoons have "shaken public trust in judiciary".
Taneja, who tweets from the handle "Sanitary Panels", had made a cartoon on the Supreme Court after it had granted bail to Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami. Goswami was arrested over the suicide of an architect, Anvay Naik, and his mother in 2018.
There were other illustrations as well where the top court was mentioned. The nod from the Attorney General had come in response to an appeal filed by a law student.
