A Session Court in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, has admitted a revision petition filed against a Magistrate order dismissing a criminal complaint filed for registration of FIR against comedian Kunal Kamra, for allegedly insulting the Indian flag, reported LiveLaw. The comedian tweeted a picture of a saffron coloured Supreme Court of India, replacing the National Flag with the flag of a Political Party.
Contempt of court it seems ??? pic.twitter.com/QOJ7fE11Fy
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) November 11, 2020
The Court of Additional Sessions Judge Anuradha Kushwaha issued a notice on the revision petition on February 11, 2021 and the matter has been fixed for hearing on March 2, 2021. The Magistrate had dismissed the complaint on grounds that the offence was not committed within its local jurisdiction.
Saurabh Tiwari, the petitioner had approached the Court of Magistrate stating that Kamra’s actions hurt the feeling of the people of this country and cause “contempt and disrepute” to the Indian National Flag. Further, he was aggrieved by the non-registration of an FIR by the local Police, and had sought a direction thereof.
After dismissal, Tiwari has moved the Sessions Court stating that a FIR may be registered in Varanasi as the impugned actions were committed on a social media platform and hence, the offence is committed at all such places where such publication can be viewed on Twitter.
LiveLaw quoted him saying, “It is clear that offence committed on social media platform (Public Platform) and against Indian National Flag then question of jurisdiction cannot be raised because offence presumed to be committed (In Varanasi also)”.
The provisions that have been prayed by the petitioner to be invoked against Kamra are section 2 of the Prevention of Insult to National Honour Act, 1971, sections 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief) of the India Penal Code.
On the issue of criminal contempt against Kunal Kamra, the Supreme Court has also issued a notice, to which he responded on January 29. He is facing contempt charges for his alleged “contemptuous and scandalous” tweets against the judiciary and the Supreme Court of India, for which he has refused to apologise.
He has said that his tweets were not aimed to diminish people’s faith in the judiciary and that there is no defence for jokes and should not be treated as reality. His affidavit before the Supreme Court also stated that the public’s faith in the judiciary is founded on the institution’s own actions, and not on any criticism or commentary about it.
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