Attorney-general K.K. Venugopal on Friday said stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra’s latest tweet on November 18 indicating that his “middle” finger was meant for the Chief Justice of India was “vulgar and obnoxious” and lowered the authority of the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court, and hence amounted to criminal contempt of court.

“The depiction of the two fingers, with the legend that he means the middle one, is to deliberately insult the Chief Justice of India which would equally be an insult to the Supreme Court of India itself, which the Chief Justice heads. The said tweet is grossly vulgar and obnoxious, and I have no doubt that it would tend to lower the authority of the Supreme Court of India as well as undermine the confidence that the litigant public have in the institution of the Supreme Court of India itself,” Venugopal said while granting consent to Allahabad-based advocate Anuj Singh who sought permission to prosecute Kamra.

“In view of the above, I accordingly grant consent under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1975,” Venugopal said. Kamra is already facing criminal contempt charges over earlier tweets he had refused to retract.