The Supreme Court on Monday fined lawyer Prashant Bhushan Re 1 for “criminal contempt” while declaring it was “not afraid” to send him to jail or debar him from practice.
The three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B.R. Gavai and Krishna Murari, whose decision on the eve of Independence Day to convict the lawyer for two tweets had triggered outrage and prompted many to repost the tweets, said if Bhushan failed to pay the fine, he would have to serve three months’ simple imprisonment and be debarred from legal practice for three years.
Bhushan, who had refused the court’s repeated calls to submit an apology and said he would accept any punishment, held a news conference later in the day to announce that he would pay the fine.
“While I reserve the right to seek a review of the conviction and sentencing, by way of an appropriate legal remedy, I propose to submit myself to this order and will respectfully pay the fine, just as I would have submitted to any other lawful punishment,” he said.
Justice Mishra, who retires on Wednesday, authored and pronounced the judgment. “The court, from the very beginning, was desirous of giving quietus to this matter,” it said.
The contempt proceedings against Bhushan were initiated suo motu by the Supreme Court, which objected to a tweet the senior lawyer had put out about the Chief Justice of India posing on a Harley-Davidson and another about the destruction of democracy in the past six years.
Justice Mishra said: “If we do not take cognisance of such conduct, it will give a wrong message to the lawyers and litigants throughout the country. However, by showing magnanimity, instead of imposing any severe punishment, we are sentencing the contemnor with a nominal fine of Re 1.”
The bench said it was going by attorney-general K.K. Venugopal’s advice in an earlier contempt case that the court’s shoulders were broad enough to take criticism. “No doubt about it, our approach has to be like the one stated by the learned attorney-general,” it said.
During the hearing on the sentence, Venugopal had urged the court to show “statesmanship” and Bhushan’s lawyer Rajeev Dhavan had argued that its shoulders were broad enough to take criticism. But the judges had said they could be lenient only if Bhushan withdrew his comments.
Bhushan refused, saying the tweets were his bona fide views and to withdraw them would be a contempt of his conscience. In refusing to apologise, he had invoked Mahatma Gandhi and said he was not seeking “mercy” or “magnanimity” and would submit cheerfully to any punishment.
“Directly or indirectly, the contemnor was persuaded to end this matter by tendering an apology and save the grace of the institution as well as the individual, who is an officer of the court,” the bench said.
“However, for reasons best known to him he has neither shown regret in spite of our persuasion or the advice of the learned attorney-general. Thus, we have to consider imposing an appropriate sentence upon him,” it continued.
The Re 1 fine will have to be paid by September 15, the court said.
The maximum punishment for criminal contempt is six months in jail or a fine or both.
“We are not afraid of sentencing the contemnor either with imprisonment or from debarring him from the practice. His conduct reflects adamance and ego, which has no place to exist in the system of administration of justice and in noble profession, and no remorse is shown for the harm done to the institution to which he belongs.
“At the same time, we cannot retaliate merely because the contemnor has made a statement that he is neither invoking the magnanimity or the mercy of this court and he is ready to submit to the penalty that can be lawfully inflicted upon him for what the court has determined to be an offence,” Justice Mishra said.