On Wednesday, advocate Chandni Preeti Vijaykumar Shah wrote to the Attorney General for India KK Venugopal seeking to initiate criminal proceedings against ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra under the State Emblem of India (prohibition of improper use) Act, 2005. This is a day after Kamra insulted India’s National Emblem by using it in a photoshopped certificate that shamed the agony of the Kashmiri Pandit genocide and blatantly mocked the film ‘The Kashmir Files’.
I am a person of Law, I shall always abide by it.
— Chandni Preeti Vijaykumar Shah (@adv_chandnishah) March 23, 2022
A letter to the AG for India Shri K.K. Venugopal for initiating criminal proceedings against comedian turned habitual offender Mr. Kunal Kamra under the State Emblem of India (prohibition of improper use) Act, 2005. pic.twitter.com/0UjRyfIwtz
Kunal Kamra yesterday used a ‘COVID certificate’ and photoshopped it along with the National Emblem on the certificate. He termed that the certificate would be issued under ‘Ministry of Propaganda’ to all those who have watched ‘The Kashmir Files’. “Soon you’ll have to show this certification to watch any other movie in India. Welcome move in the national interest”, he tweeted. He also mocked director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri and named him ‘Vivekuddin Agnihotri’ in the Photoshop certificate image.
Chandni Preeti Vijaykumar Shah in her letter to the Attorney General for India said that Kamra had dishonored the National Emblem by labeling it with the preposterous and undignified language used in the rest of the photoshopped certificate. “According to the State Emblem of India (prohibition of improper use) Act, 2005 no person other than authorized under the act is allowed to use the emblem for any purpose in any manner”, the letter read.
She added that Kamra, in the name of Freedom of Speech, had attained fame by insulting the Judiciary and the National Emblem. “There is a strong need to establish the notion that Freedom of Speech is not absolute but rather a privilege”, she stated adding that the Constitution of India will be in danger if this kind of mockery is allowed time and again.
This is not the first time that Kunal Kamra has insulted India, its integrity and its pillars. Earlier this month, two lawyers- Advocate Ashutosh Dubey and Advocate Vineet Jindal had written to the Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal requesting permission to commence contempt proceedings against the stand-up comedian for vilifying and defaming the Indian judiciary in his recent ‘comedy’ video.
I have requested to Hon’ble Chief Justice Of India and Supreme Court Of India to initiate proceedings against Alleged Comedian “Kunal Kamra” for criminal contempt under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. https://t.co/FGF9tZsDfK pic.twitter.com/boZ6uOTKss
— ADV. ASHUTOSH J. DUBEY 🇮🇳 (@AdvAshutoshBJP) March 5, 2022
Kunal Kamra in one of his videos uploaded on his YouTube channel had made derogatory remarks against the SC. While speaking about the contempt of case filed against him in the top court, Kamra had said, “Dear SC, kal ki baat bhul ja, lvda pakad ke jhul ja (forget yesterday’s talk, come swing on pnis)”. Kamra in the video further had said that he had more respect for the food court in the shopping mall that the apex court and alleged that the SC is a ‘Brahmin Baniya’ affair and it did not represent different cultures.
Shah in her letter also mentioned that Kamra had taken the Attorney General for India for granted by outrightly rejecting its request to take down malicious tweets against the Supreme Court of India. Earlier, in December 2020, the SC had issued notice to Kamra seeking contempt proceedings after his contemptuous remarks against the Judiciary in his bid to become a liberal ‘hero’ or ‘martyr’.
In one of the tweets, he had also shown the middle finger to CJI Arvind Bobde and in another, he had painted SC in saffron color to allege that it had become a ‘puppet’ of the NDA govt. “The pace at which the SC operates in the national interests, its time we replace Mahatma Gandhi’s photo with Harish Salve photo”, he had said. The earlier cases filed against Kamra by Advocate Dubey and Advocate Jindal were under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The recent case by Advocate Chandni Preeti Vijaykumar Shah has been filed under the State Emblem of India (prohibition of improper use) Act, 2005.
