Activist turned Lawyer trapped in his own game: SC finds Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt against Judiciary

New Delhi: In a major blow to the anti-Modi government lobby, the Supreme Court on Friday, August 14, held senior counsel Prashant Bhushan ‘guilty’ of the charge of contempt of court for his controversial tweets against Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde and others. BJP leader and an advocate Gaurav Bhatia quickly welcomed the apex court’s decision.

“SC Holds Prashant Bhushan Guilty Of Contempt For Tweets Against Judiciary. A welcome judgment by Hon’ble Supreme Court. It sends out a strong message that no one can get away with making scurrilous remarks against the SC,” Bhatia tweeted. He also hoped that the crucial development “Will (also) cure the VIRUS of Paisa Interest Litigation PIL”.

The Supreme Court is likely to hear Bhushhan on August 20 on the quantum of sentence. Bhushan has been always in the forefront attacking the Modi government both in legal cases and beyond them. Notably, Bhushan along with senior editor N Ram and former union minister Arun Shourie on Thursday withdrew from the Supreme Court their PIL challenging the constitutional validity of ‘criminal contempt’, with regard to scandalising the judiciary.

A bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Arun Mishra, B.R. Gavai and Krishna Murari had asked Bhushan to ‘show cause’ as to why the contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him. In one of his tweets on June 29, Bhushan had flayed Chief Justice of India Bobde for riding an expensive Harley Davidson bike without a helmet and a face mask and also mentioned that the Chief Justice had kept the court “in lockdown mode”.

In another missive in the micro blogging site on June 27, counsel Bhushan had written about the “role of the Supreme Court” in the so-called “destruction” of democracy during the last six years. Bhushan had also made a veiled attack on the “role of the last four CJIs”.

Bhushan is also better known as a ‘PIL lawyer’. He was a member of India Against Corruption (IAC) under Anna Hazare during the campaign for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill. He was also part of the Aam Aadmi Party but later was thrown out.

A Madhya Pradesh-lawyer, Mehek Maheshwari had also filed a petition against Bhushan and Twitter on July 2, asking for contempt proceedings to be initiated against Bhushan. Maheshwari, according to media reports, also called the tweets by Bhushan a “cheap publicity stunt… to spread hatred in the form of anti-India campaign”.

Reacting to the court’s ruling on Friday (Aug 14) against Bhushan, Maheshwari in a tweet said: “Lord denning said Whomsoever high u may be but Law is always above you. Finally in Contempt case initiated on my Petition which then court converted suo moto, found guilty of contempt Mr. Bhushan. sentence will be pronounced on 20th August”.

The two controversial tweets from Bhushan, who had also petitioned the court against the government on high profile Rafale aircraft purchase case, were thus: “The CJI rides a Rs 50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] 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!” and —- : “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 reply to the suo moto contempt case against him, Bhushan had said genuine criticism of the apex court’s functioning – however “unpalatable and undesirable” cannot be called contempt of the court. Notably, there is another contempt court against Bhushan pending for August 17.

Bhushan had earlier tried to make an explanation but the Supreme Court refused to accept the same and ruled, on August 10, that it will hear the matter in detail.