SC issues revised order with AG’S name in Bhushan case
NEWDELHI:THE Supreme Court on Friday published a revised copy of its order passed on Thursday in the contempt-of-court case against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan to acknowledge the appearance of Attorney General KK Venugopal.
The omission of Venugopal’s name in the order sheet published on Thursday had raised eyebrows in the legal fraternity. Venugopal appeared in the case in his personal capacity on August 5 when the matter was heard on merit, and on August 20 when the hearing on the sentencing took place.
While the order sheet of August 5 contained Venugopal’s name, the one uploaded on August 20 did not. A revised copy was later published on Friday afternoon reflecting the AG’S name.
“It is a minor error and not a big issue. These mistakes happen and nothing should be read into it. Moreover, the error has been rectified now,” senior counsel Arvind Datar said. Venugopal, 89 — whose consent, which is otherwise required, was not obtained before the matter was taken up by the Supreme Court and who was not heard by the court during the contempt hearings — appeared in his personal capacity before the bench on Thursday and argued the judges shouldn’t impose any punishment on Bhushan.
A three-judge bench headed by justice Arun Mishra held the activist lawyer guilty of contempt of court for two tweets on August 14. “The Attorney General (AG) is the pre-eminent member of the Bar and generations of judges have known and understood the high constitutional authority of that office. The manner in which he was ignored for four-and-ahalf hours during the conviction hearing and then interrupted repeatedly today by the presiding judge is a slight against the entire Bar. Under the Constitution, the AG doesn’t need anybody’s permission to appear -- the fact that the present incumbent is a gentleman should not be taken as a sign of weakness,’’ said senior advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, following the court proceedings.
The order sheet, a record of proceedings that transpire in court, contains names of all lawyers who appear in a case on the day of the hearing. The lawyers’ names are provided to the court staff on a form known as “appearance slip” by the advocate-onrecord (i.e. the lawyer in whose name the petition and other documents are filed).
The court staff then include those names in the order prepared by them, which is then published on the Supreme Court website. After hearings through video conference began before the Supreme Court on March 23, the appearance slip is submitted online. “Not including the Attorney General’s name in the order sheet is a serious issue and cannot be brushed aside as an inadvertent omission by the court staff. When the Attorney General for India appears and speaks in a case, it means his office is seized of the matter,” said Supreme Court lawyer and advocate-onrecord Sriram Parakkat. “It does happen sometimes that names of junior lawyers who are part of a case are omitted by the court staff by mistake but such a mistake hardly happens when it comes to law officers, particularly the highest law officer of the country who is also a constitutional functionary.” In court on Thursday, the three-judge bench cut short the AG’S arguments and said its judgment of August 14 will not be reconsidered, and that the AG should not make arguments on the merits of the case. The bench later gave Bhushan 3-4 days to reconsider his stand.