Supreme Court order on Prashant Bhushan’s sentencing on Monday
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on Monday pronounce its verdict on the sentence to be awarded to advocate Prashant Bhushan after it held him guilty of criminal contempt of court on August 14 for his two tweets on the apex court and Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde.
According to the Contempt of Courts Act, the offence of criminal contempt carries a punishment of up to six months in prison or a fine up to Rs 2,000, or both.
In previous instances, the court has also barred lawyers found guilty of contempt from practising before the court for a limited period, while refraining from imposing any jail sentence.
The three-judge bench, headed by justice Arun Mishra and comprising justices BR Gavai and Krishna Murari, had given Bhushan the opportunity to apologise for his tweets and express regret but the activistlawyer stated that his tweets were based on his bona fide beliefs and an apology for his views, which he believed to be true, would be insincere. The court had reserved its judgment in the matter on August 25.
Bhushan had posted two tweets, one on the Supreme Court on June 27 and another on CJI Bobde on June 29.
In his first tweet, he said: “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, referring to CJI Bobde, said: “The CJI rides a ~50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] 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!”
The court took note of the tweets after advocate Mehek
Maheshwari filed a petition before the Supreme Court on July 9 seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against him. Maheswhari’s petition, however, did not have the consent of the Attorney General, a pre-requisite under the Contempt of Courts Act for the apex court to entertain criminal contempt petitions filed by private individuals.
The court registered a suo motu case based on Maheshwari’s petition and issued notice to Bhushan on July 22.
The court then heard the matter on August 5 and held Bhushan guilty of contempt of court in a judgment delivered on August 14. It then posted the case for hearing on August 20 to decide the sentence to be given to Bhushan. During the hearing on August 20, Bhushan maintained that he stood by his tweets.