Prashant Bhuhan is increasingly finding himself in a pickle. The senior advocate on Monday expressed his regret for 2009 statement where he had remarked that half of the 19 former Chief Justice’s of India were corrupt. However, the Supreme Court wasn’t impressed by Prashant’s crocodile tears and said that the bench comprising of Justice Arun Mishra, BR Gaval and Krishna Murari will hear the matter and deal with the issue of whether comment on corruption against judges per se amounted to contempt or not.
On August 4, the apex court had made clear to Bhushan and Tarun Tejpal, the Editor-in-Chief of Tehelka magazine, that it would hear the case against them, if it does not accept their “explanation” or “apology” in the matter.
On November 6, 2009, the first of the two contempt complaint was placed before a bench comprising the then Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice S H Kapadia, which directed that the matter be listed before a 3-judge bench in which Justice Kapadia was not a member.
On January 19, 2010, a bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir, Cyriac Joseph and H L Dattu issued notices to Bhushan and Tejpal.
Reported by TFI, another suo moto case was taken on the basis of a complaint made by Senior Advocate Harish Salve where the former AAP member had put out vitriolic tweets against CJI Bobde and said that the last 4 CJIs had destroyed democracy in India,
https://twitter.com/pbhushan1/status/1276710603214610432?
After landing himself in two contempt cases, the embittered lawyer, who has been infamously known for his foul-mouthing style in the past, tried to play aggressively on the front foot and argued vociferously for his case to be dismissed.
Bhushan even teamed up with Arun Shourie and N Ram to challenege the validity of the contempt of court law.
The unholy trio of Prashant Bhushan, N Ram, and Arun Shourie on July 31st filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of section 2(c)(i) of Contempt of Courts Act, which criminalizes publication of any matter that could scandalize or lower the authority of courts.
But all his shindigs have had no affect on the Judges as Bhushan’s trial will proceed forward as the bench has announced that next hearing will take place on August 17.
Prashant Bhushan is set to face the music for his derisive remarks and after realizing this harsh truth, the lawyer has turned to emotional drama. However, the court is having none of his antics and its only a matter of time that Bhushan gets the judgement that has eluded him for more than 10 years and allowed him to tarnish the Supreme Court and its CJI’s legacy unabated.