Controversial Comedian Kunal Kamra on Friday filed his written affidavit on his defamatory tweets targetting the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in favor of Republic TV Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami. The Supreme Court had held a special hearing after Arnab was arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch in a suicide case and later he was granted bail by the apex body.
A bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy, and MR Shah is hearing the contempt case of Kunal Kamra. Kamra was asked to file his response on the contempt case by the court, following which he submitted his affidavit and refused to apologize for his scandalous tweets against the Apex court.
Kamra in his affidavit said, "My tweets were not published with the intention of diminishing the faith of the people in the highest court of our democracy. It is funny though, how little the petitioner appears to have in the people of this country. The suggestion that my tweets could shake the foundations of the most powerful court in the world is an over-estimation of my abilities. Just as the Supreme Court values the faith the public places in it (and seeks to protect it by the exercise of its criminal contempt jurisdiction), it should also trust the public not to form its opinion of the court on the basis of a few jokes on Twitter. The public faith in the judiciary is founded on the institution's own actions, and not on any criticism or commentary about it."
"We are witnessing an assault on the freedom of speech and expression, with comedians like Munawar Faruqui being jailed for jokes that they have not even made, and school students being interrogated for sedition."
"To believe any institution of power in a democracy is beyond criticism is like saying migrants need to find their way back home during an ill-planned, nationwide lockdown...the suggestion that my tweets could shake the foundation of the most powerful court in the world is an over-estimation of my abilities,” it said.
"These jokes are not reality, and do not claim to be so. Most people do not react to jokes that don’t make them laugh; they ignore them like our political leaders ignore their critics. That is where the life of a joke must end...I do not believe that any high authority, including judges, would find themselves unable to discharge their duties only on account of being the subjects of satire or comedy.”