'Supreme Court does not mean Chief Justice'

-Prashant Bhushan says in response to the court's contempt notice

-Revealed 142 pages in response to a two-page notice

New delhi date. 4 August 2020 Tuesday

Prashant Bhushan, an ardent legislator, said in his reply to the contempt of court notice he received by the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the opinion does not mean contempt of court even if some individuals disagree with it. He said that the Supreme Court is not the Chief Justice. The Supreme Court is an institution. Commenting on any judgment of the Chief Justice does not mean disregarding or disregarding the Supreme Court.

Bhushan responded to the two-page notice issued by the Supreme Court in one hundred and forty-two pages. The apex court had on July 22 issued a contempt of court notice to Bhushan. Bhushan took to Twitter to comment on the two Supreme Court judgments. Bhushan was given a notice before August 5 to answer why he should not file a criminal case against him for contempt of court. In his reply, Bhushan covered the issue through statements made by previous Supreme Court judges, attempts to curb dissent in democracy, etc. through Kamini Jaiswal. Bhushan kept the two tweets intact, saying he had done nothing wrong with the two tweets. The Supreme Court opined that both of your tweets were a threat to the reputation of the Supreme Court and that you ignored the Supreme Court which was in fact tantamount to contempt of court.

For some time now, Prashant Bhushan has been constantly criticizing various Supreme Court judgments on social media. He was of the opinion that this was a democracy and that anyone had a fundamental right to have an opinion on a court decision.

It may be noted here that Justice Markandey Katju, a former Supreme Court judge, had more than once publicly opined that countries around the world had repealed the contempt of court provision. The time has come for India to repeal this provision too.