Mumbai: Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has approached the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of FIRs registered against him by the Mumbai Police over alleged remarks insulting Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
In his plea, Kamra said that the continuation of the case would be a frontal attack on a “citizen’s constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression”. It asked whether a person’s right to comment on political developments and actions of leaders could be criminalised in this manner.
Kamra has said that his remarks regarding the split in the Shiv Sena, Shinde quitting Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena faction and being sworn in as the chief minister at the time (in 2022) are all part of records.
Requesting the police to record his statement through video conference, his plea states that he has been receiving death threats after the show.
On Monday, his counsel Navroz Seervai and advocates Ashwin Thool and Meenaz Kakalia, mentioned the petition before a bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and SM Modak, seeking urgent hearing.
Seervai informed the bench that Kamra has got interim relief from the Madras High Court till Monday, but despite that the Mumbai police keep issuing him summons to appear before them. In the course of the day, the Madras HC extended his interim protection till April 17. The bench said it would hear the plea on Tuesday.
Kamra claimed the complaints against him were violative of his fundamental rights of freedom of speech and expression, right to practice any profession and business and right to life and liberty guaranteed under the Constitution of India. He sought for the FIR to be quashed claiming the allegations, even if taken at face value, do not constitute an offence.
He has urged the HC to protect him from any coercive action including arrest, seizure of his personal electronic devices and examination of his financial transactions and accounts.
“To permit the investigation to continue would constitute a frontal assault on the freedom of speech and expression. Should a citizen’s right to comment on the political developments and actions of political leaders be criminalised in this manner?” the plea read.
The plea said the FIR has been registered on a stand-up comedy performance, which provides satirical commentary on various social and political events of the country. There has been a gross abuse of process and the malafide deployment of the criminal justice machinery by a member of the state’s legislative assembly, resulting in a patent violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights, it claimed.
His plea claims that the script for the show was written in July 2024; and performed on 60 occasions between August last year and February 2025. However, a recording of the show was uploaded only in March 2025, pursuant to which case was lodged, it said.
The first FIR was filed on March 24 at the Khar police station over comments Kamra made during his ‘Naya Bharat’ show at Habitat Studio, Unicontinental Hotel, Khar. He allegedly made remarks about prominent politicians, industrialists, and central agencies.
A zero FIR was initially registered at MIDC police station the same day and later transferred to Khar police station. The complaint was filed by Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MLA Murji Patel, who represents the Andheri East Assembly constituency. Three more FIRs were filed on March 28 under the same provisions. Additional cases were registered in Thane and Dombivli.
On April 5, an online ticketing platform delisted Kamra and removed all content related to him amid backlash over his remarks.
