Supreme Court holds advocate Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt for derogatory tweets against CJI, judiciary

New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: The Supreme Court on Friday held senior advocate Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court for his alleged tweets against Chief Justice SA Bobde and his four predecessors and said that hear the arguments on sentence against him on August 20, reported news agency ANI.

A three-judge bench -- which included Justices Arun Mishra, Krishna Murari and BR Gavai -- noted that Bhushan committed "serious contempt of court", adding that the hearing for punishment in the case will be held on August 20.

Bhushan in couple of tweets had raised questions over judiciary while criticising it. "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, and more particularly the role of the last 4 CJIs," he had said in one of his tweets that was made on June 27.  

"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!" he had said in one of his tweets that was made on June 29," he said in another tweet that was made on June 29.

Following this, the Supreme Court issued a show cause notice to Bhushan on July 22. On August 5, the apex court had reserved its verdict after the activist-lawyer defended his two alleged contemptuous tweets and said that they were against the judges regarding their conduct in their personal capacity and they did not obstruct administration of justice.

Bhushan had also sought a direction to declare that the apex court's secretary general has allegedly "acted unconstitutionally and illegally" in accepting a "defective contempt petition" filed against him, which was initially placed on the administrative side and later on the judicial side.

However, the apex court had said that it has “meticulously” followed the law in entertaining the contempt plea and it did not agree to the submission that it be sent to another bench for hearing. The court had said these statements are prima facie capable of "undermining the dignity and authority" of the institution of the Supreme Court in general and the office of Chief Justice of India in particular, in the eyes of the public at large.