Attorney General denies consent for contempt proceedings against Swara Bhasker

KK Venugopal, the Attorney General of India, on August 23 declined consent to initiate criminal contempt against Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar over her comments on the Supreme Court judgment on Ayodhya land dispute.

The plea was filed in the Supreme Court to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against the actor, reported Bar and Bench.

Quashing the plea, Venugopal said: “The comment refers to the judgment of the Supreme Court, and is not an attack on the institution. This does not offer any comment on the Supreme Court itself or say anything that would scandalise or tend to scandalise, or lower or tend to lower the authority of the Court. In my opinion, this statement does not constitute criminal contempt.”

Petitioner Usha Shetty had sought the approval of the AG to begin the criminal contempt proceedings against Swara. She was of the opinion that the actor made the comments with the intention of inciting a lack of confidence in the Indian judiciary and that it even amounted to questioning the integrity of the SC.

The petitioner had also claimed that the comments made by Swara Bhaskar at an event hosted by the Mumbai Collective were downright “derogatory and scandalous”.

She has now approached Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta to initiate the criminal contempt proceedings, stating that she does not agree with the reasoning given by Venugopal.

What did Swara say?

Commenting on the Supreme Court’s Ayodhya verdict, she had said: “Though the Supreme Court had deemed the demolition of Babri masjid as unlawful, they had rewarded the people who razed the historical structure in the same judgment.”

She had also said: “We are now in a situation where are courts are not sure whether they believe in the constitution or not.”