New Delhi: Advocate Prashant Bhushan has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging the apex court's verdict of holding him guilty of contempt of court for his tweets against the CJI SA Bobde and his 4 predecessors.
Bhushan was directed to deposit Rs 1 in the court as fine which he deposited today but said that he didn't accept the verdict so he will file a review plea.
Citing various past cases where Justice Arun Mishra had not granted orders in his favour and alleged contempt on some of his pleas itself, Bhushan says that Justice Mishra should not have heard his case.
"On several occasions, Hon'ble Justice Arun Mishra has orally accused the review petitioner of committing contempt of court when he had merely mentioned that it may be inappropriate for a particular judge to hear a particular case in circumstances where conflict of interest was involved," read the plea.
Bhushan has cited pleas seeking an investigation into a large amount of funds donated by Birla and Sahara to the politicians and officials, a plea seeking an investigation into procured favourable orders etc which were all rejected by the Justice Mishra led bench. In one of the cases, Bhushan says that though Attorney General had withdrawn his contempt plea, Justice Mishra insisted on deciding the case and asked for an unconditional apology for seeking his recusal.
In the concerned current matter also AG KK Venugopal had suggested the court to not grant any punishment to Bhushan and let him off with a warning but Justice Mishra had refused.
Contending other reasons, Adv Bhushan says that the contempt plea against him was not maintainable in the first place as it was rejected by the AG and SG both. He says that petition should have been returned for AG or SG's consent before allowing to proceed further.
Further, he said that the case should have waited for resumption of physical hearing because as per the SC's COVID 19 guidelines "the matter as such could not have been taken up at all, there are being no urgency whatsoever".
Raising suspicion over the listing of one more contempt against him for an interview of 2009, Bhushan says that old proceedings were dug out which had been pending since last 10 years and placed before the Justice Mishra bench making it clear that intent was to take away his liberty in an unauthorised manner.
"There is something more than meets the eye in fixing and listing of the present matter because curiously on the day of the hearing, 22.07.2020, as recorded by the Hon'ble court itself, an old tweet of the petitioner made on June 27, 2020 appears in the newspaper, Times of India; and the Hon'ble Court takes cognizance of the same as well to treat the same as Contempt of the court. It is submitted that this appears in the paper of an old tweet on the day of hearing of the petition for contempt on a different tweet, indicates that there is a conspiracy against the petitioner," read the plea. He suspects that it was deliberately planted because the tweet on which contempt was based did not constitute to contempt any more.
"It is submitted that the order does not even indicate as to how and who brought this news item to the knowledge of the Hon'ble court," added the plea.
Justice Arun Mishra led bench had pronounced Bhushan guilty for contempt of court and had sought an unconditional apology for the same so that the matter can be settled. But Bhushan had refused to do so saying that his conscience doesn't allow him to do so. He was heard but the dissatisfied court held him guilty and asked him to pay the fine of Rs 1 or face jail term and be barred from the practice.
Also Read: Prashant Bhushan submits Re 1 fine, says will file review plea
