SC reserves order in 11-year-old contempt case against Bhushan
NEWDELHI:THE Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a 2009 contempt petition against lawyer Prashant Bhushan after holding in-camera proceedings, at the end of which Bhushan said his remarks alleging former chief justices of India were corrupt did not refer to financial wrongdoing but lack of propriety.
A bench of justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai, and Krishna Murari said, “In case we do not accept the explanation/apology, we will hear the matter. We reserve the order.” Since the matter was heard in-camera the parties refused to comment.
Contempt proceedings in the present case were initiated by the Supreme Court in 2009 on a petition moved by senior advocate Harish Salve over Bhushan’s comment to Tehelka magazine on September 5, 2009. The court initiated contempt action against Tehelka’s former editor Tarun Tejpal too. He was present in the hearing on Tuesday and offered an apology.
Senior advocates Rajiv Dhavan and Kapil Sibal represented Bhushan and Tejpal while Salve too was present during the hearing held through videoconferencing. Before commencing the in-camera proceedings, the bench told Dhavan, “Please suggest a way out to avoid this rigmarole. We don’t want to curtail freedom of speech but we also want to save the grace of this institution which belongs to you as well.” “You have stood for freedom of speech and expression but it may be the case that you might have crossed the thin line of contempt. How do we save the grace of this system? I want to know from you as an amicus so that we can avoid this conflict. Suggest us some way out as the system also belongs to you,” the bench said.
The judges later spoke individually with Dhavan, Sibal and Salve through a Whatsapp video call and concluded arguments. Later in the day, the bench re-assembled and spoke again to the concerned lawyers. The bench said it was of the prima facie view that calling judges corrupt per se (by itself) was contempt. Sibal tendered an apology from Tejpal while Bhushan was willing to issue a statement.
Bhushan said, “In my interview to Tehelka in 2009 I have used the word corruption in a wide sense meaning lack of propriety. I did not mean only financial corruption or deriving any pecuniary advantage. If what I have said caused hurt to any of them or to their families in any way, I regret the same.”
Dhavan was of the opinion that any final decision on whether contempt is made out or not can be arrived only after hearing the parties. Meanwhile, Bhushan faces fresh contempt action from the Court for his alleged tweets on June 27 and June 29. In one he criticized CJI SA Bobde for riding a bike while keeping the Courts closed while in the other, he accused the judiciary of destroying democracy without a formal Emergency. This case is coming up before a bench headed by justice Arun Mishra on Wednesday.
NEWDELHI: The Army on Tuesday set August 31 as the deadline for short-service commissioned (SSC) women officers to submit their applications for permanent commission. This comes days after the government on July 23 issued a formal sanction for granting the permanent commission following the Supreme Court’s February verdict in this regard.
The court ruled that women officers, who have joined the Indian Army through SSC, are entitled to permanent commission. It added that women should be considered for command roles and that all women officers are entitled to permanent commission. The court asked the Army to give them permanent commission within three months. The Centre got a one-month extension on July 7 to implement the verdict after it moved an application seeking the extension of the deadline by another six months citing Covid-19 and the lockdown imposed from March 25.
“Detailed administrative instructions have been issued to all affected women officers giving out guidelines for submission of applications for consideration by a selection board,” an army spokesperson said on Tuesday. He said the Army headquarters was in the process of convening a special selection board for screening women officers. “Specimen formats and detailed checklists have been included in the administrative instructions in order to facilitate correct documentation.”
The government’s July 23 order specified grant of permanent commission to women officers in 10 streams -- Army Air Defence, Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics, and Mechanical Engineers, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, and Intelligence Corps in addition to the streams of Judge and Advocate-general and Army Educational Corps. The selection board will be held after receipt and verification of applications.
CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS WERE INITIATED BY THE SC IN 2009 ON A PETITION OVER BHUSHAN’S COMMENT TO TEHELKA THAT HALF OF THE PAST 16 CJIS WERE CORRUPT