Prashant Bhushan’s statement to SC: No apology, only ‘regret’
Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan, on Tuesday, refused to tender apology in an 11-year-old contempt case for alleging misconduct against Justice S.H. Kapadia for being part of a forest bench that had decided the Niyamgiri mining lease in favour of Sterlite Industries — a subsidiary of Vedanta.
In 2009, Mr Bhushan, in an interview to Tehelka magazine, had said that Justice Kapadia should not have been on the bench as he was holding shares of Sterlite Industries.
Justice Kapadia went on to become the Chief Justice of India and later passed away on January 4, 2016.
Refusing to apologise in the 2009 case, Mr Bhushan, in a statement before a three judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra, affirmed his “unreserved” support and faith in the judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court.
“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,” Mr Bhushan said in his statement to the court on Tuesday.
However, he said, “If what I have said caused
hurt to any of them or to their families in any way, I regret the same.”
The statement issued by Mr Bhushan on Tuesday is almost the same to the one he had issued way back on January 13, 2010, by way of clarification wherein he had said that he had never attributed any financial corruption against Justice Kapadia.
Mr Bhushan’s statement on Tuesday came after Justice Mishra had a long interaction with senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, lawyer of Prashant Bhushan in the case; Kapil Sibal, lawyer for second contemnor Tarun Tejpal and erstwhile editor of Tehelka magazine; and amicus curiae Harish Salve.
In the course of interaction with senior lawyers, the judges on the bench said that they wanted to put an end to the matter to protect the dignity of the court and of the judges and asked Mr Bhushan and Mr Tejpal to issue statements tendering their apologies.