‘Let the word justice make sense in your honor ...’ urges 1500 lawyers in support of Prashant Bhushan

-The Supreme Court is to sentence Bhushan

New Delhi Dated 18th August 2020 Tuesday

Lawyers across the country appeared to be upset on Monday after the Supreme Court convicted senior legislator Prashant Bhushan in a contempt of court case. The top 1500 lawyers had requested the Supreme Court to stop Prashant Bhushan from being sentenced even to make the word justice meaningful. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Prashant Bhushan's sentence on August 20.

Meanwhile, fifteen hundred lawyers wrote a letter to the Supreme Court that Prashant Bhushan should not be sentenced. In fact, the Supreme Court should take a reformist stance to prevent justice from failing. The letter was signed by a number of senior legislators, including members of the Bar Council of India. These lawyers were of the opinion that the Supreme Court was undermining its independence and power by showing fear of contempt of court.

The senior lawyers who signed the letter included Shriram Panchu, Arvind Datar, Shyam Diwan, Maneka Guru Swami, Dryas Khambhata, Raju Ramachandran, Vishwajit Bhattacharya, Janak Dwarkadas, Kamini Jaiswal, Karuna Nandi, Vrinda Gowar and Mihir Desai.

A statement issued by the lawyers said that the verdict against Prashant Bhushan would be a blow to the freedom of speech of the lawyers. Earlier, the Bar Council of India had raised its voice in favor of the judges when the pressure was mounting on them.

Prashant Bhushan has been tweeting against the Supreme Court verdict for some time now. Earlier in 2009, he had also tweeted against the verdict and on one occasion said that fifty per cent of the judges of the Supreme Court were corrupt. He recently tweeted about the current Chief Justice SA Bobade. The Supreme Court sent him a contempt of court notice. Prashant Bhushan had apologized which the court denied and found Bhushan guilty.