“Prashant bhushan founds himself guilty of derogatory tweets against judiciary”

Supreme Court holds Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt for derogatory tweets against the judiciary. The activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan was found guilty by the supreme court for his two derogatory tweets against the judiciary.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said it would hear on 20 August the arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to Bhushan in the matter. On August 5 the apex court had reserved its verdict in the matter after Bhushan had defended his two tweets, saying they were against the judges regarding their conduct in their personal capacity and they did not obstruct the administration of justice.

On 22nd of July, the top court had issued a show-cause notice to Bhushan after initiating the criminal contempt against him after taking the note of the petition.

While the order in the contempt case was being reserved, the top court had dismissed a separate petition filed by Bhushan seeking recall of the July 22ndorder by which the notice was issued against him in a contempt proceeding initiated for his alleged contemptuous tweets against the judiciary.

The top court had not agreed to the contention of senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing Bhushan, that the separate plea had raised objection against the manner in which the contempt proceeding was started without the opinion of attorney general K.K. Venugopal and it is sent to another bench.

Bhushan sought a direction to declare that the apex court’s secretary-general has allegedly “acted unconstitutionally and illegally". In accepting a “defective contempt petition” filed against him which was initially placed on the administrative side and then on the judicial side.

The apex court referring to a judgment said that it has “meticulously “ followed the law in entertaining the contempt plea and it did not agree to the submission that it be sent to another bench for hearing.