NEW DELHI: Advocate and activist Prashant Bhushan defended his comments about the judiciary in the 2009 contempt case and has filed a written submission before the Supreme Court. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra on Friday pronounced Prashant Bhushan guilty of serious contempt of court for his two tweets over judiciary and on which arguments on sentence will be heard on August 20.
In his written submission regarding the tweet concerning the top court and the last four CJIs, Prashant Bhushan stated, “The respondent has stated in his affidavits as well in the explanation given to the court on 4.08.2020 that he had used the word corruption in a wide sense to include any act of impropriety other than merely financial corruption.”
“Without the allegations (of corruption) against a judge being documented and investigated in the manner further provided under the Judges Inquiry Act, to establish the veracity, the allegation per se cannot amount to contempt in so far as it would nullify the constitutional provisions and statutory procedures for impeachment of a judge on grounds of misbehavior including corruption,” the submission stated.
The court is likely to take up the case for detailed hearing on Monday. “Corruption in public life has a wide and expansive definition and the factum of corruption in the judiciary has been stated in Parliamentary Committee reports on Prevention of Corruption.” “Moreover, allegation of corruption per se cannot be contempt as well as the allegations of corruption cannot be per se contempt because truth is a defense to contempt proceedings,” Prashant Bhushan stated.