SC holds senior advocate Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt for tweets against judiciary
NEW DELHI: In a big setback for senior advocate and activist Prashant Bhushan, the Supreme Court on Friday held him guilty of contempt of court for his two tweets against the judiciary.
A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra will hear him on August 20.
According to the criminal contempt law, the maximum sentence can be of six months in jail or a fine of up to Rs 2,000 or both.
Bhushan posted two tweets, one on the apex court on June 27 and the second on CJI SA Bobde on June 29.
Both tweets were taken down by Twitter after the top court issued a contempt notice to Bhushan.
The first tweet was, “When historians in the future look back at the last six years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the SC in this destruction, and more particularly the role of the last four CJIs.”
The second tweet read, “The CJI rides a Rs 50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan, Nagpur, without wearing a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC on lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access justice!”
Bhushan, in his affidavit, regretted saying Bobde was not wearing a helmet. He added he failed to notice the bike was stationary and that the CJI was not riding but merely sitting on it.
The top court is also seized of another suo motu contempt petition against Bhushan for calling past CJIs corrupt in a 2009 interview to Tehelka magazine.
The court had on August 5 reserved its verdict in the matter after Bhushan had defended his two tweets, saying they were regarding the conduct of judges in their personal capacity and did not obstruct administration of justice.
Though Bhushan gave an explanation, the bench refused to accept it and ruled that the matter requires a detailed hearing which has been slated for August 17.
On July 22, the top court had issued a show cause notice to Bhushan after initiating the criminal contempt against him after taking note of a petition.
While referring to the tweets by Bhushan, the apex court had earlier said these statements are prima facie capable of "undermining the dignity and authority" of the institution of the Supreme Court in general and the office of Chief Justice of India in particular, in the eyes of the public at large Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Bhushan in the matter, had said, "The two tweets were not against the institution".
Bhushan has made immense contribution to the development of jurisprudence and there are "at least 50 judgments to his credit", Dave had said, adding that the court has appreciated his contributions in cases like 2G scam, coal block allocation and in mining matters.
Referring to the ADM Jabalpur case on suspension of fundamental rights during the Emergency, the senior advocate had said that even "extremely uncharitable" remarks against the judges were made and no contempt proceedings were made out.
In a 142-page reply affidavit filed in the matter, Bhushan had stood by his two tweets and had said the expression of opinion, "however outspoken, disagreeable or unpalatable to some", cannot constitute contempt of court.
Bhushan, in the affidavit, has referred to several apex court judgements, speeches of former and serving judges on contempt of court and the "stifling of dissent" in a democracy and his views on judicial actions in some cases.
Preventing citizens from demanding accountability and reforms and advocating for the same by generating public opinion is not a ''reasonable restriction'', the affidavit had said, adding that the Article 129 cannot be pressed into service to stifle bonafide criticism.
(With agency inputs)