Supreme Court gives Prashant Bhushan two days to reconsider his ‘defiant statement’

The Supreme Court Thursday granted two days to activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who has been held guilty of contempt, to reconsider his ‘defiant statement’ refusing to apologise for his contemptuous tweets against the judiciary.

Bhushan told a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra that he would consult his lawyers and chew over the apex court’s suggestion.

Attorney General K K Venugopal urged the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, to not award any punishment to Bhushan within the contempt case saying he has already been convicted.

The bench said it cannot consider the request of Venugopal unless 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.

The top court said it are often very lenient if there’s realisation of mistake, and posted the matter for further hearing on August 24.

At the outset, it rejected the submission of Bhushan’s counsel that another bench hear the arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded within the case. A contemnor are often punished with simple imprisonment of up to 6 months or with a fine of up to Rs 2,000 or with both.

The bench gave assurance to Bhushan that no punishment are going to be acted upon till his review against the order convicting him is set .

The bench told senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing Bhushan, that he’s asking them to commit an act of impropriety by saying that the argument on sentencing be heard by another bench.

Justice Mishra said that he are going to be retiring soon and adjournment shouldn’t be sought and therefore the review are going to be decided after this matter is set finally.

The bench said it’s not inclined to listen to the appliance filed by Bhushan on Wednesday seeking deferment of hearing on the sentence till his review petition is set .

At the outset, Dave sought deferment of hearing on the quantum of sentence within the case saying that he would be filing a review petition against the conviction order.

The top court on August 14 held Bhushan guilty of contempt of court for his derogatory tweets against the judiciary saying they can’t be said to be a good criticism of the functioning of the judiciary made within the public interest.

During the hearing, on Thursday, Dave told the bench that heavens aren’t getting to fall if the apex court will suspend the hearing on quantum of sentence.

You are asking us to commit an act of impropriety that arguments on sentencing should be heard by another bench , the bench said

It added: Has it been ever done that hearing on sentencing has been undertaken by the opposite bench when the most bench is existing?