Lawyer Prashant Bhushan has filed a petition before the Supreme Court of India, in context of seeking review to the fine of Rs 1, which was slapped on him over judgement for contempt of court.
On August 31, A three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai, and Krishna Murari found Bhushan guilty of contempt of court for two of his tweets dated 27th June, 2020 and 29th June 2020, where he was found criticising Honourable Supreme Court and CJI S. A. Bobde. The apex court handed down the punishment to Bhushan, and slammed him with a fine of Re 1.
The Court also added that they were showing magnanimity by not imposing a severe punishment on him.
In his first tweet on June 27, Bhushan had said, “When historians in 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 Supreme Court in this destruction, & more particularly the role of the last 4 CJIs.”
The second tweet on June 29 on a viral post, claimed, “CJI rides a 50 lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan, Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access Justice!”
The three-judge bench held that the tweets were an attempt to shake the very foundation of constitutional democracy and hence must be dealt with an ‘iron hand’.