Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, held guilty of contempt for his tweets criticising Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and the Supreme Court, has been fined Re 1 by the top court.
A three-judge bench said that if Bhushan fails to deposit the amount by September 15, he will have to undergo simple imprisonment for three months and will be barred from practising for three years.
Prashant Bhushan has said he will take a "collective decision" on whether to pay the fine or confront the other options.
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The Supreme Court had, on August 14, held Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt of court and stated that the allegations levelled in the tweets against the court and CJI are malicious in nature and have the tendency to scandalise the court.
Bhushan’s tweets were based on distorted facts and have the effect of destabilising the foundation of the judiciary, the court had added.
Though the court gave him time to “think over”, Bhushan maintained that he will not apologise and in a statement on August 24 said that the views expressed by him through his tweets represented his bona fide (good faith) beliefs and, therefore, an apology for expressing such beliefs would be insincere.