Bhushan refuses to apologise for tweets
NEW DELHI: Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, citing freedom of speech, has refused to apologise for two tweets in June, one of which accused the judiciary of destroying democracy and the other criticised the current Chief Justice of India for keeping the courts shut during the lockdown.
In an affidavit filed on Sunday in response to the suo motu (on its own) contempt proceedings initiated against him by the Supreme Court over the tweets on July 22, Bhushan said : “Such expression of opinion however outspoken, disagreeable or however unpalatable to some, cannot constitute contempt of court. This proposition has been laid down by several judgments of this court and in foreign jurisdictions such as Britain, US and Canada.”
Bhushan also cited the speeches on dissent made by SC judges DY Chandrachud and Deepak Gupta in February. “Justice DY Chandrachud, while delivering the 15th P D Desai Memorial Lecture in the Gujarat High Court on February 15, expressed his anguish at the manner in which dissent was labelled as anti-national.”
A three-judge bench on July 22 issued a notice to Bhushan over the tweets and directed him to respond by August 5. The first tweet, which was reproduced in the court order, 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.” In his affidavit, he explained this as his “bonafide opinion, which people can and may disagree with” but added that “in any healthy democracy, there needs to be free and frank discussion about the role of every institution”.
The second tweet referred to the incumbent CJI SA Bobde. It was also cited in the order and said: “The CJI rides a ~50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP 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!” Bhushan, in his affidavit, regretted saying Bobde was not wearing a helmet. He added he failed to notice the bike was stationary. “...I stand by the remaining part of what I have stated in my tweet.” He sought to explain in his affidavit that criticism of the CJI doesn’t mean criticism of the court itself.
The next hearing is set for August 5. The two tweets in question have been disabled by Twitter Inc after it was made a party to the case.