AG Consents Initiation Of Contempt Proceedings Against Artist Rachita Taneja

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF INDIA SHRI KK VENUGOPAL HAS CONSENTED TO INITIATE CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ARTIST RACHITA TANEJA ON A PLEA FILED BY A LAW STUDENT.

WHO IS RACHITA TANEJA?

• Rachita Taneja is a cartoonist and founder of the Sanitary Panel, an instagram account with over 90k followers
• She is widely known for using stick figures and scripting sarcastic commentary on current affairs
• In her words, she uses cartoons because they an effective way to communicate and break societal taboos, and thus the name 'Sanitary Panel'
• She has reportedly participated in the Obama Foundation's Town Hall in New Delhi, India on December 1, 2017
• She recently posted tweets which are allegedly designed to 'make citizens lose confidence in the judiciary.'

WHAT WERE THE CARTOON POSTS?

• In the first post, journalist Arnab Goswami is referring to BJP as hi 'father' and thus ensuring that he gets the fatherly attention from the Supreme Court by ensuring a bail in his ongoing case.
• In the second post, the word 'Supreme' was replaced with 'Sanghi' in the Supreme Court of India and the Tricolor above it replaced with saffron flag of RSS, thus denoting that the Supreme Court is now owned up by the RSS and the ruling party BJP.
• In the third post, she alleged that the judgment in Ram Janmbhoomi case was merely a bargain between the Supreme Court and the ruling party BJP.

LAW RELATING TO CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS IN INDIA

• In India, the contempt proceedings are initiated under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
• The present proceedings have been initiated under Section 15(1)(b) of the act read with Section 3(c) of the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court, 1975
• Under this provision, any person can initiate a proceeding for contempt of the Supreme Court by taking written consent of the Attorney General or the Solicitor General.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S COMMENTS AND THE PLEA

• In the consent letter, AG KK Venugopal has opined that "the tweet is clearly calculated to undermine the public confidence in the independence and impartiality of the Supreme Court of India,"
• The plea filed by the law student reads,"The three alleged posts in the form of cartoons/ caricatures have shaken the public trust and confidence in the judicial system of our constitutional democracy by directly attacking and making insinuations against the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India”.

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