The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday gave activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan two to three days to reconsider his “defiant statement” refusing to apologise for his tweets.
Bhushan, who intends to file a review plea against his contempt, said he would consult his lawyers and think over the apex court’s suggestion.
Earlier in the day, the SC had rejected Bhushan’s submission that another bench should hear the arguments on the quantum of punishment in the contempt case. To this, the court said, “You are asking us to commit an act of impropriety that another bench should hear arguments on sentencing.”
A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra told Bhushan that no punishment will be acted upon till his review is decided.
Attorney General KK Venugopal urged the bench, also comprising Justices BR Gavai and Krishna Murari, not to award any punishment to Bhushan in the contempt case saying he had already been convicted.
But the court said that it cannot consider the request of Attorney General till Prashant Bhushan reconsiders his earlier stand of not apologising for his tweets. “The tone, tenor and content of Bhushan’s statement makes it worse; is it defence or aggravation”, the court told Venugopal.
“Court can be very lenient if there is a realisation of mistake,” the bench said.
As many as 1,500 lawyers from across the country, including senior members of the Bar have expressed “dismay” over the conviction and urged the SC to “take corrective steps to prevent a miscarriage of justice”.
Bhushan was held guilty of contempt for two of his tweets. Read here:https://hellotricity.in/lawyer-prashant-bhushan-held-guilty-of-contempt-for-tweets-on-cji/
