The Supreme Court on Monday sentenced Prashant Bhushan to a fine of Rupee 1 in the contempt case for his tweets on the judiciary. The court, while delivering its verdict said, “Failure to deposit fine will lead to 3-month jail term and debarment from law practice for 3 years.” The court also observed that freedom of speech can’t be curtailed but the rights of others need to be respected. 

Responding to the verdict, Bhushan said, “My lawyer and senior colleague Rajiv Dhavan contributed 1 Re immediately after the contempt judgement today,  which I gratefully accepted.” 

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari delivered the ruling. In its last hearing, the Court had said that it was “painful” to read the justifications of Bhushan in connection with the case.

“This is not the way a senior lawyer like Bhushan over 30 years of experience should behave,” Justice Arun Mishra observed. While the court had said that apology is a magical word that can heal a lot many things, Bhushan had said that apology would mean “contempt of his conscience.”

Rajeev Dhawan who represents Bhushan in the case had requested the court, to not “make Bhushan a martyr” and had asked it to let him go with a warning. Attorney General KK Venugopal also shared a similar view. 

Bhushan was held guilty of contempt of court on August 14. The case is related to two tweets posted by Bhushan on June 27 and 29. While the first one talked about an undeclared emergency and the role of the Supreme Court. The second was regarding Chief Justice SA Bobde who tried a Harley Davidson superbike in his hometown Nagpur, during the coronavirus outbreak.

The top court also has referred a 2009 contempt case against advocate Prashant Bhushan to an appropriate bench that will take up the matter on September 10.