AG Kishore Datta's Consent Sought to Initiate Contempt of Court Proceedings Against MP Derek O'Brien for Tweets Against Justice Kausik Chanda

A Kolkata-based lawyer Debapriya Samanta on Friday sought the consent of West Bengal Advocate General Kishore Datta to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Derek O'Brien, Rajya Sabha MP and leader of the Trinamool Congress. This step was taken in light of O'Brien's tweets against Calcutta High Court judge, Justice Kausik Chanda.

As per Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, the consent of Advocate General is required before the High Court can hear a criminal contempt petition filed by a private individual, as reported by Bar n Bench.

Samanta in his letter referred to two tweets put out by O'Brien on June 18 in which he had questioned the allocation of Mamata Banerjee's Nandigram election case to Justice Kausik Chanda.

In one of his tweets, O'Brien had tweeted pictures of Justice Chanda participating in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) events when he was a lawyer.

Another tweet put out details of certain cases in which Justice Chanda had appeared as a lawyer for the BJP.

The letter written by Samanta to AG states, "Both these tweets are publications which are contemptuous in nature in that they are 'calculated to bring a Court or Judge of a court into contempt or to lower its authority'. By these tweet, Mr Brien seeks to create an impression on the minds of the public at large that Justice Chanda and the Court are prejudiced, and that Justice Chanda is not acting fairly and that he would only act to protect the interests of the Bhartiya Janta Party." 

"The contents of both these tweets hence only seeks to bring the Court and the Judge into contempt and lower its authority and hence falls within the scope of Section 2 (c) (1) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971," he stated in the letter

Pointing at the influence of the leader, Samants says, "It needs to be recalled here that Mr O'Brein is no ordinary individual – he is a member of the Parliament as well as a celebrity who enjoys a massive following on various social media platforms. His words have the potential to influence the minds of the public at large on account of the large public audience and authority that is available to him and thus he has the responsibility to be more circumspect with his words and actions."

Samanta, therefore, sought AG's consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Derek O'Brien.

Letter Source: Letter to AG by Debapriya Samanta.pdf, Bar n Bench