New Delhi: Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal on Saturday has declined consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan for his recent tweet against Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde’s visit to Madhya Pradesh stating that the lawyer had “expressed regret”.
Advocate Sunil Singh had sought consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Bhushan for the tweet connecting “the personal life of CJI SA Bobde with a pending case before him.”
The AG, however, said that the tweet of Prashant Bhushan was “wholly unwarranted, improper devoid of legal basis and prima facie contumacious”.
“The CJI avails a special chopper provided by the Madhya Pradesh government (authorised by the CM) for a visit to Kanha National Park and then to his home town in Nagpur, while an important case of disqualification of defecting MLAs of MP is pending before him. Survival of MP govt depends on this case,” Prashant Bhushan had tweeted on October 21.
Bhushan was convicted for a tweet against CJI Bobde in August earlier this year and let off with a Re 1 fine by a bench led by Justice Arun Mishra who had opined that the court could not ignore the disrespect created by the tweet.