The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its judgement on sentence against advocate Prashant Bhushan in contempt of court for his tweets derogatory to the CJI and his four predecessors.”If you are hurting someone, then what is wrong in apologising,” Justice Arun Mishra said. Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan appearing for Bhushan said that if Bhushan’s statement is read as a whole, it says he has the highest regard for this institution, but he has his opinion about four former CJIs and the manner in which this court has gone wrong. “We criticise this court when we feel sincere about this institution.”
“The effect of a punishment is it will make Prashant Bhushan a martyr. Do not make Prashant Bhushan a martyr. We don’t want this controversy to continue. This controversy will continue depending on the sentence that you give Bhushan,” Dhavan submitted. Dhavan said:“Nobody can be forced to tender an apology in a contempt proceedings and the court must recall its judgment convicting Bhushan for contempt of court and if it does not, then it should not impose any sentence on him as the criticism by him was strong, but not scurrilous.”
The court then sought the views of Attorney General K.K. Venugopal on how to proceed with the matter. The AG responded, “He (Prashant Bhushan) may be given a warning first and let go. He need not be punished.”
Justice Arun Mishra said: “But he doesn’t think whatever he did was wrong. He did not submit an apology. What to do when someone does not think they did something wrong?”
“There are very serious statements made. They are asking us to consider his defence during sentencing. He has made so many remarks. Even in the Ramjanmabhoomi case,”Justice Mishra added. Justice Arun Mishra further said: “Whatever we have to say, we have to write in our judgments. There are so many things but do we have to go to the press? I will never do that. That’s the ethics for judges. If we are going to fight each other, pull each other down, we will finish this institution.”
“Haven’t people been criticising us? So many people criticise us, but how many people have we convicted or punished? There is another case against Mr Bhushan pending since 2009,has he been punished there? I have to demit office and it is painful I have to deal with all this,” Justice Arun Mishra added
“For how long the system will suffer all this? I am retiring in a few days. Will it be okay if you or others start attacking me? Why to say you can say anything against retired judges? Justice Mishra said. On 24 August, advocate Prashant Bhushan had filed a statement before the top court and refused to submit an unconditional apology to the court. “My tweets represented this bona fide belief that I continue to hold. Public expression of these beliefs was, I believe, in line with my higher obligations as a citizen and a loyal officer of this court,” Bhushan said.
“An apology cannot be a mere incantation and any apology has to, as the court has itself put it, be sincerely made. This is especially sowhen I have made the statements bonafide and pleaded truths with full details, which have not been dealt with by the court. If I retract a statement before this court that I otherwise believe to be true or offer an insincere apology, that in my eyes would amount to the contempt of my conscience and of an institution that I hold in highest esteem,” the statement said. “I believe that the Supreme Court is the last bastion of hope for the protection of fundamental rights, the watchdog institutions and indeed for constitutional democracy itself. It has rightly been called the most powerful court in the democratic world, and often an exemplar for courts across the globe. Today in these troubling times, the hopes of the people of India vest in this court to ensure the rule of law and the Constitution and not an untrammeled rule of the executive,” Bhushan said.