Kunal Kamra’s 28 January 2021 affidavit responding to a Supreme Court of India contempt notice argued that his tweets were satire, not literal claims. “These jokes are not reality and don’t claim to be so,” he wrote. The response did not apologise, according to Scroll’s report published the following day.
What was Kamra replying to?
The filing is captioned Shrirang Katneshwarkar & Ors. v. Kunal Kamra, Supreme Court of India, Contempt Petition (Crl.) No. 2 of 2020. Its index records that Kamra’s affidavit was filed in New Delhi on 28 January 2021 through Advocate on Record Pritha Srikumar Iyer. LiveLaw reproduced the filing’s caption and index.
Contemporaneous reports connected the proceeding to Kamra’s tweets criticising the Supreme Court over its handling of Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami’s bail plea in an abetment-to-suicide case. Scroll reported on the response and published its text; LiveLaw also reported on the case context.
What did Kamra say in the affidavit?
Kamra framed the tweets as a comedian’s perspective, using satire and hyperbole to raise issues he considered matters of public interest. He argued that jokes should not be taken as factual statements: “These jokes are not reality and don’t claim to be so.”
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He also disputed the idea that criticism or commentary determines public confidence in the judiciary. His affidavit said: “The public’s faith in judiciary is founded on the institution’s own actions and not on any criticism or commentary about it.” Kamra further said he would respect the Bench’s decision.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the response does—and does not—establish
Those statements describe Kamra’s arguments as the respondent in the contempt proceeding; they are not a court’s findings or a general statement of Indian contempt law. Scroll reported that he filed the response without apologising. The filing date is 28 January 2021, while Scroll’s report appeared on 29 January 2021.
The sources cited here do not establish the contempt case’s later or current procedural status, so no conclusion about its eventual outcome follows from this affidavit or those contemporaneous reports.
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