Advocate General Kishore Datta's consent sought to initiate contempt of court against MP Derek O'Brien for tweets against Justice Kausik Chanda

A Kolkata based lawyer has sought the consent of West Bengal Advocate General Kisohre Datta to initiate criminal contempt of court action against Rajya Sabha MP and All India Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien for his tweets against Calcutta High Court judge, Justice Kausik Chanda. .The letter seeking AG's consent was sent by advocate Debapriya Samanta who practices before the Calcutta High Court. 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.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 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. ."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'," the letter written by Samanta to AG said. He added that by these tweets, O'Brein seeks to create an impression in 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 BJP. "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. .The letter by Samanta also pointed out that 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 platform."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," the letter said. .Samanta, therefore, sought AG's consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Derek O'Brien. .On Thursday, a Kolkata resident had written to AG Datta seeking his consent to initiate contempt of court proceeding against West Bengal Bar Council Chairperson, Ashok Kumar Deb.The request was made in the light of the letter written by Deb to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana making allegations against acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Rajesh Bindal..[Read Letter]