Attorney General grants consent to initiate contempt proceedings against cartoonist Rachita Taneja

Supreme Court of India

Attorney General KK Venugopal has consented to initiating contempt proceedings against cartoonist Rachita Taneja for sharing tweets deriding the Supreme Court of India.

The AG’s nod for beginning contempt proceedings against the young cartoon artist came at the request of Aditya Kashyap - a law student, reported the Bar and Bench.

Granting consent to initiate the contempt of court proceedings, Venugopal said Taneja’s tweets hinted at the Supreme Court of India being biased towards the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“I am satisfied that each of the tweets with cartoons attached is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India, hence I grant my consent,” he wrote in the letter.

Taneja had tweeted a stick cartoon with the caption “Tu Janta Nahi Mera Baap Kaun Hai (you don’t know who my father is)”, after the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to TV news anchor Arnab Goswami.

The cartoon tweeted from Taneja’s Twitter handle @sanitarypanels had stick figures depicting the BJP, the Supreme Court, and a journalist (Arnab Goswami).

The law student who sought permission to initiate contempt proceedings against Rachita Taneja had also attached the excerpt of another tweet dated August 7, 2020, that read: “Let’s not forget how we got here.” It accompanied a caricature hinting at a quid pro quo relationship between the Judiciary and the Centre in delivering the judgment on the contentious Ayodhya case.

AG Venugopal additionally flagged Taneja’s tweet that read: “Arnab gets bail, real journalists get jail, independent judiciary is fail.” This tweet was accompanied by a picture of the Supreme Court with a saffron flag on the top. The flag had the words “SANGHI COURT OF INDIA” engraved on it.