Attorney General Gives Nod For Contempt Action Against YouTuber For Remarks About SC

Attorney General KK Venugopal on Tuesday, September 15, agreed to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against YouTuber Ajeet Bharti for his alleged remarks criticising the Supreme Court and its judges in one of his videos.  In his letter of consent, the A-G said that he found the contents of the video, which has been watched by about 1.7 lakh people, as "highly derogatory, vituperative and gross" to the Supreme Court of India and the judiciary as a whole. The remarks were intended to denigrate the courts, he said. 

"The allegations made by Mr. Ajeet Bharti against the Supreme Court are, among other things, of bribery, favouritism and abuse of power," he added. A lawyer identified as Kritika Singh sought to initiate contempt proceedings against Bharti, who runs the "DO Politics" YouTube channel. 

'Supreme Court Judges Are Sinners'

According to Singh's complaint, on June 24, Bharti had also allegedly referred to the Supreme Court judges as "sinners", saying that they get "blackmailed" by advocates.  

The A-G also referred to some of Bharti's objectionable comments, including the one where he said, "Prashant Bhushan showed the Supreme Court its real place, all at the expense of Rs 1". He said that, "Whatever might have been the motive behind the making of these scurrilous statements, it was obvious that the speaker who is quite educated would have known that the result would be to attract the contempt jurisdiction of the Supreme Court…"