A three-judge Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra will on Monday pronounce its sentence on civil rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan , found guilty of criminal contempt for two tweets .
Mr. Bhushan has refused to apologise in his two statements to the court. He was convicted of scandalising the court with his tweets of a picture of Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde astride a heavy bike and the role of the court in the past six years. The lawyer said the tweets were his bona fide opinions.
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In the last hearing, the court wondered about the resolve shown by Mr. Bhushan to not offer an apology in the face of contempt, saying “you have hurt someone, you must remove the hurt”.
“Justice Mishra had asked, “What is wrong in seeking apology? Is it a sin to apologise? Will that be a reflection of guilt? ‘Apology’ is a magical word which can heal. You will all go to the category of Mahatma Gandhi if you can apologise”.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal had urged the court not to punish Mr. Bhushan. He said this was an opportunity for the court to enhance its greatness through its compassion.
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Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, Mr. Bhushan's lawyer, had advised the court to not make his client a “martyr” by punishing him. What was needed was judicial statesmanship and not mercy, he had said.
In his sentence hearing on August 20, Mr. Bhushan quoted the Mahatma, saying he asks for neither mercy nor magnanimity from the court. Though the court gave him an opportunity to tender an “unconditional apology” by August 24, the senior lawyer, in his second statement to the court, said an insincere apology amounted to contempt of his conscience and to the institution he held in high esteem.