Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt for tweets on CJI

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Strap: SC says it’s attack on entire top court; lawyer-activist stares at 6-month jail

‘Can’t ignore’

“Such an attack which tends to create disaffection and disrespect for the authority of this court cannot be ignored…. The confidence in courts cannot be permitted to be impaired by malicious attacks” SC Bench

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 14

The Supreme Court today held activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court for his tweets against Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and the four last CJIs.

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said, “The scurrilous/malicious attacks by the alleged contemnor No. 1 (Bhushan) are not only against one or two judges but the entire Supreme Court in its functioning of the last six years. Such an attack which tends to create disaffection and disrespect for the authority of this court cannot be ignored.”

It said if such an attack was not dealt with requisite degree of firmness, it may affect the national honour and prestige in the comity of nations.

The Bench, which also included Justice BR Gavai and Justice Krishna Murari, will hear arguments on sentence on August 20. The maximum sentence prescribed under Section 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, is six-month imprisonment with a fine of Rs 2,000.

Last week, the Bench had decided to go ahead with contempt proceedings against the activist-lawyer in an 11-year-old contempt case in which he had expressed regret but refused to apologise.

Describing “fearless and impartial courts of justice” as the bulwark of a healthy democracy”, the top court said, “The confidence in them cannot be permitted to be impaired by malicious attacks upon them.”

Recently, Bhushan had tweeted, “The CJI rides a 50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur (sic), without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access justice!”

In another tweet, he had on June 27 said, “When historians in 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 Supreme Court in this destruction, and more particularly the role of the last four CJIs.”