Prashant Bhushan sentenced to pay a fine of Re 1 or undergo 3 months' jail term in contempt of court case
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The Supreme Court pronounced the sentence of Prashant
Bhushan ordering him to pay Re 1 as fine, or, in default,
undergo a jail term of 3 months in the contempt of court case
against him. He had posted allegedly defamatory tweets on the
Supreme Court and the current and former Chief Justices of
India of which the apex court took suo moto cognisance and he
was convicted on August 14.
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NEW DELHI, Aug 31: The Supreme Court on Monday sentenced
well-known civil rights advocate Prashant Bhushan, who had
been held guilty in the contempt of court case against him, to
pay Re 1 as fine by September 15 or undergo 3 months' jail
term and be debarred from practising for three years.
The apex court had on August 14 found him guilty of tweeting against the court
and the current and former Chief Justices of India. He was convicted by a three-judge
bench led by Justice Arun Mishra. The maximum punishment is 6 months in jail or a
fine of Rs 2,000 or both under the Contempt of Court Act. The sentence
was to be pronounced on August 20 but he was given three days to apologise.
Thereafter Bhushan submitted a statement but defending what he had said and
done.
At the subsequent hearing last Tuesday, where his statement also came up, Attorney-General
KK Venugopal suggested that he may be pardoned. The court asked Bhushan to withdraw
the statement, which the court found a repeat of the offence in itself, which
he refused. He stood his ground.
The apex court then fixed August 31 to pronounce the sentence.
Bhushan's statement defended that the tweets represented a bona fide belief
he holds and that an apology would be insincere. It further said that retracting
would be a "contempt of my conscience" and the court.
He had posted the following tweets on June 27 and 29:-
"When historians in the future look back at the last six years to see how
democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they
will particularly mark the role of the SC in this destruction, and more particularly
the role of the last four CJIs."
"The CJI rides a Rs 50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP (Bharatiya Janata
Party) leader at Raj Bhavan, Nagpur, without wearing a mask or helmet, at a
time when he keeps the SC on lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental
right to access justice!"
Another contempt of court case of 2009 is also pending against Prashant Bhushan
before the apex court. He had called former Chief Justices corrupt.
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