NEW DELHI: In an interesting turn of events, activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan admitted in the Supreme Court to a ‘genuine mistake’ in tweeting that the government had perhaps submitted to it fabricated documents of the high-powered selection panel on the appointment of interim CBI chief M Nageswara Rao but refused to tender an unconditional apology for seeking recusal of Justice Arun Mishra from hearing the contempt petition filed against him by Attorney General K K Venugopal.
The AG filed a contempt plea against Bhushan for his February 1 tweets. During the hearing before a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha, Venugopal said he would like to withdraw his contempt plea since Bhushan has made a statement that it was a “genuine mistake”. He also reiterated that he does not want any punishment for Bhushan in the case and the court should deal with the larger issue of whether lawyers and litigants can criticise the court proceedings in a matter which is sub-judice to influence public opinion.
Justice Mishra, who initially said he would not recuse from hearing the contempt plea, later heard detailed arguments on Bhushan’s application in which he has sought his recusal. Venugopal told the bench that he would like to withdraw his contempt plea and said, “He (Bhushan) is prepared to make a statement before this court that he had made a mistake. In view of what is given to me in writing, I will withdraw my petition. He (Bhushan) has said that he had done a genuine mistake”. To this, the bench said, “You (Venugopal) may or may not withdraw the petition against him (Bhushan) but you have raised a question and we will decide it”.
The bench slated the matter for further hearing on April 3.