Lawyer Prashant Bhushan has been found guilty by the Supreme Court because of his two tweets, these tweets had been made about Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. The judgment was made by a three-judge bench consisting of Justices BR Gaval, Arun Mishra and Krishna Murari. Prashant Bhushan said that he regretted only ‘a part’ of what he tweeted and said that his intentions were not to scandalise the matter.
The Supreme Court had started proceedings against lawyer Prashant Bhusan and his tweets under suo motu crimanam contempt on July 21. A bench had reserved the judgement in the case. Justice BR Gavai, who read out the ruling, noted that Bhushan had committed “serious contempt”.
The hearing on the quantum of punishment will be held on August 20.In Bhushan’s first tweet, he commented about the ‘undeclared emergency’ in India and the role of Supreme Court and last four Chief Justices of India.
His second tweet was about CJI SA Bobde’s photo in which the CJI is seen trying out a Harley Davidson super-bike in his hometown of Nagpur. Prashant Bhushan said that his tweets were not an “obstruction of court”, and he was exercising his freedom of speech and giving his own opinion about the functioning of the court.
Bhushan’s lawyer Dushyant Dave had said that the two tweets were not against the institution. “They are against the judges in their personal capacity regarding their conduct. They are not malicious and do not obstruct administration of justice,” Mr Dave had said.
(With Inputs from The Scroll.in and NDTV.com)
