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Judiciary; Bhushan apologises for Harley tweet featuring CJI Bobde, but stands by rest of his posts Advocate Prashant Bhushan apologised for mentioning that CJI S.A. Bobde was not wearing a helmet while astride a Harley Davidson, as he didn’t notice the bike was on a stand. After activist-advocate Prashant Bhushan refused to apologize to the Supreme Court (SC) to avert punishment for his conviction for contempt or court, a controversial tweet has surfaced in his name. The court had added that if Bhushan fails to pay a fine of Re 1, he will be sentenced to 3 months in jail and suspension of his lawyering for 3 months. The case pertained to two tweets where Prashant Bhushan had cast aspersions against the Supreme Court and specifically, CJI Bobde. Prashant Bhushan held guilty of contempt for tweets against CJI. The court said Mr. Bhushan’s tweet gave an impression that “the CJI is enjoying his ride on a motorbike worth ₹50 lakh.

The Supreme Court on Monday fined senior advocate Prashant Bhushan Re 1 in the contempt case for his tweets on the judiciary, reported Live Law. On August 25, the court had reserved its ruling after numerous arguments as Bhushan refused to apologise.

The bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari pronounced the judgement. The bench said that the senior lawyer will be imprisoned for three months and will be debarred from practicing for three years if he defaults on the payment of the penalty. Bhushan was instructed to pay the fine by September 15.

Mishra cited the top court’s precedents to highlight that the in-house procedure should be approached for corruption allegations against judges. “Judges are not supposed to go to the press, their comments outside the court should not have been relied on,” Mishra said, according to Bar and Bench.

Mishra added that multiple opportunities were given to Bhushan to express regret over his remarks. “He [Bhushan] not only gave wide publicity to the second statement but also gave various interviews to press,” the top court bench said, according to NDTV. “We have considered the sane advice given by the Attorney General, and have concluded that the conduct of present contemnor also needs to be taken into consideration.”

The top court said that Bhushan’s statement, in which he said that offering an apology for his constructive criticism of the judiciary would amount to the “contempt of his conscience”, was made to “influence independent judicial function”.The court noted that freedom of speech was important but rights of others must also be respected.

Bhushan, meanwhile, said that he will announce his decision to either pay the fine or face other options during a press conference at 4 pm. He also tweeted pictures of himself holding a Re 1 coin. “My lawyer and senior colleague Rajiv Dhavan contributed 1 Re immediately after the contempt judgement today which I gratefully accepted,” he wrote.

The senior lawyer was held guilty in contempt of court on August 14. The case pertains to two tweets posted by Bhushan on June 27 and June 29. In one tweet, he made a remark about an undeclared emergency and the role of the Supreme Court and last four chief justices of India. The second tweet was about Chief Justice SA Bobde trying a Harley Davidson superbike in his hometown Nagpur during the coronavirus outbreak.

In the last hearing on August 25, the top court had said it was “painful” to read Bhushan’s statements and justifications with regard to the case. “This is not the way a senior lawyer like Bhushan over 30 years of experience should behave,” Justice Arun Mishra had said.

During proceedings in the case on August 20, the top court had dismissed Bhushan’s request to adjourn the hearing on the quantum of punishment in the case and transfer it to another bench. It had instead given the senior lawyer two to three days to reconsider his remarks about the court and the CJI.

On August 19, Bhushan had moved the Supreme Court seeking to defer the next day’s proceedings to announce his punishment till a review petition was filed and considered.

Prashant Bhushan's Mother Kumud Bhushan

In his defence, Bhushan told the Supreme Court on August 24 that his tweets were a constructive criticism of the judiciary and that retracting his statement or offering an insincere apology would amount to “contempt of my conscience”.

On August 25, the Supreme Court also referred a 2009 contempt case against Bhushan to an “appropriate bench” that will take up the matter on September 10. The case is related to Bhushan’s interview to Tehelka magazine 11 years ago in which he made allegations of corruption in the Supreme Court and said half of the previous 16 chief justices were corrupt. The contempt of court case was filed by advocate Harish Salve.

Also read:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to advocate Prashant Bhushan on the suo motu contempt proceeding against him, saying that the activist-lawyer 'brought administration of justice into disrepute' and his tweets are 'capable of undermining the dignity and authority of SC and office of CJI', reports said.

According to LiveLaw, the Supreme Court has also asked Bhushan to justify to the court 'as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against him over his tweets on judiciary'.

SC says it prima facie is of the view that the two tweets by adv. #PrashantBhushan have brought disrepute to the administration of justice and could undermine, in the eyes of the public, the dignity and authority of the Supreme Court in general and the CJI’s office in particular. pic.twitter.com/tvEEM1gilk

— The Leaflet (@TheLeaflet_in) July 22, 2020

The allegedly contemptuous tweets were critical of the top court and posted by Bhushan on Twitter on 27 and 29 June. In one of the tweets, the advocate has criticised CJI SA Bobde. He had tweeted: 'CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access Justice! (sic)'

CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access Justice! pic.twitter.com/PwKOS22iMz — Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) June 29, 2020

Bhushan has been raising issues pertaining to judiciary and recently he was very critical of the way in which the top court handled the matters related to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhushan had slammed the apex court, saying:

When historians in future look back at the last 6 years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the Supreme Court in this destruction, & more particularly the role of the last 4 CJIs

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) June 27, 2020

The bench, which asked the Attorney General to assist in the matter, posted the case for hearing on 5 August.

Prashant Bhushan Tweets Supreme Court

According to news agency PTI, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra also observed that initially the contempt issue was placed before the administrative side of the apex court but it was directed to be listed on the judicial side.

Twitter Inc made party to case, offers to remove tweets

The apex court also directed that Twitter INC be made a party, instead of Twitter India, to the contempt proceedings it has initiated suo motu (on its own) and asked the US-based firm to file a response in the matter.

The bench was told by Twitter's counsel that if the top court directs, then the firm would disable the alleged contemptuous tweets of Bhushan.

Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, appearing for Twitter, told the bench that Twitter India has wrongly been made a party in the matter and it should have been Twitter INC.

The bench, while noting that the correct party in the matter should be Twitter INC and not Twitter India, permitted the company to file an appropriate application in this regard.

SC to hear older contempt of court case against Bhushan on 24 July

This, however, is not the first time Bhushan had openly criticised the apex court and siting members of the judiciary.

Earlier also, the apex court in November 2009, had issued contempt notice to Bhushan for allegedly casting aspersions on some sitting and former top court judges in an interview to a news magazine.

The matter which was not heard by the apex court as per the record available on the top court's website since May 2012 is now listed for hearing on July 24.

It is schedule to be heard by a bench headed by Justice Mishra on Friday as per the list of business of July 24, uploaded on the apex court website.

Prashant Bhushan News

With inputs from PTI