SC holds Bhushan guilty of contempt
■ Sentencing on August 20
The Supreme Court on Friday held activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan guilty of “criminal contempt” for lowering its dignity and authority by questioning, via his tweets, the functioning of the top court in the last six years under the present Chief Justice, Sharad A. Bobde, and his predecessors. The court fixed August 20 for his sentencing.
Holding that the tweet in question was “malicious” and based on “distorted facts”, a bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Krishna Murari said that the tweet had the “effect of destabilising the very foundation” of the judiciary.
The country’s top court has taken exception of that part of Mr Bhushan’s June 27 tweet in which he said that the Supreme Court has played a substantial role in allowing the destruction of democracy in the past six years, since 2014, and questioned the role of the last four Chief Justices in particular in allowing it.
The court said that in its “considered view” the tweet “undermines the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the CJI and directly affronts the majesty of law.”
“There is no matter of doubt that the tweet tends to shake the public confidence in the institution of judiciary,” the judgment said.
The “scurrilous/malicious attacks” by Mr Bhushan are not only “against one or two judges but the entire Supreme Court in its functioning of the last six years.”