Court contempt provision should be repealed, this provision is sometimes abused: Prashant Bhushan

New Delhi Dated 5th September 2020 Saturday

Senior legislator Prashant Bhushan said the contempt of court provision should be repealed forever. Occasionally this provision was abused. Attempts were made to trample on the fundamental right to freedom of speech in the name of independence of the judiciary.

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had recently fined Prashant Bhushan for contempt of court. Prashant Bhushan in a program termed this provision of contempt of court as very dangerous and said that now this provision should be repealed forever.

It may be noted here that Justice Markandey Katju, a retired Supreme Court judge, had earlier said more than once in public that there was no provision for contempt of court anywhere in the world. If all countries had repealed this provision then why should this provision continue in a democratic country like India.

Bhushan was speaking at an event organized by Foreign Correspondence of South Asia. The theme of the program was 'Freedom of Speech and Judiciary'. Bhushan said that in a democracy every sensible citizen should have the right to have an independent opinion about the functioning of the judiciary. But every time the voice of the citizens was silenced by the contempt provision of the court. This is a very dangerous provision that should be abolished forever. In very few countries like India, this provision was still in force.

Following Bhushan's two tweets, the Supreme Court convicted him and imposed a symbolic fine.