New Delhi: Not dealing firmly with malicious attacks against the judiciary “may affect the national honour and prestige in the comity of nations”, the Supreme Court said Friday as it held advocate Prashant Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt for his tweets.
A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, B.R. Gavai and Krishna Murari said Bhushan’s tweets were based on “distorted facts”, adding that his allegations were “undoubtedly false, malicious and scandalous”.
The Supreme Court had last month initiated contempt proceedings against Bhushan over a couple of tweets where he sought to raise questions about the conduct of Chief Justice of India (CJI) S.A. Bobde, and some of his predecessors.
Holding him guilty of contempt Friday, the court cited Bhushan’s three-decade career as a lawyer and the medium used — Twitter, which took his remarks instantly “to millions” — to justify its verdict. The court noted that Bhushan is a veteran lawyer with 30 years’ experience in the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, and said such tweets “are not expected” from a lawyer of his standing.
Bhushan, the bench said, is “expected to act as a responsible officer of the court”. “The alleged contemnor being part of the institution of administration of justice, instead of protecting the majesty of law, has indulged into an act, which tends to bring disrepute to the institution of administration of justice,” it added.
It also considered the fact that the remarks were made through a tweet. “The publication by tweet reaches millions of people and as such, such a huge extent of publication would also be one of the factors that requires to be taken into consideration while considering the question of good faith.”
