new Delhi . The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on Monday in the contempt case against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who was convicted for tweeting against the judiciary. Earlier on August 25, Judge Arun Mishra, B.C. R. Gavai and Krishna Murari reserved order on his sentence after Prashanth refused to apologize for his tweets.
Referring to Bhushan’s refusal to apologize for the tweet, he said, “What’s wrong with apologizing?” Is this word so bad? During the hearing, the bench also gave Bhushan 30 minutes to consider his stand not to regret the tweet.
Attorney General K.R. K. Venugopal told the bench that he suggested that the case be closed without punishing Bhushan. The apex court had on August 14 convicted Bhushan of criminal contempt for a derogatory tweet against the judiciary. In this case, they can be punished with imprisonment up to six months or fine up to Rs 2,000 or both.
Justice Mishra said that by how long this system will have to suffer. The bench said that judges are condemned and their families are humiliated. They said, they cannot even speak.
The apex court told Bhushan’s lawyer that he expected him to be impartial. Justice Mishra said, you can have love and affection for anyone, but we want you to be fair.
Senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan, representing Bhushan, had argued that the apex court could say in the judgment that it did not agree with Bhushan. Dhawan insisted that no one can be forced to apologize in contempt proceedings and said that Harley Davidson’s remarks made by Bhushan were hardly criticism.
Dhawan had argued that the apex court can say in the judgment what kind of code people should follow, but the idea should not be to silence Bhushan.
The apex court during the arguments asked Bhushan why he was so upset about apologizing for the tweet.
The AG insisted that the apex court should forgive Bhushan and take a compassionate view on the case. The bench said that a person should realize his mistake and said that he gave time to Bhushan, but he refused to apologize.
The AG said that Bhushan should withdraw all statements and express regret.
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