Prashant moves SC seeking review of fine imposed in contempt case

New Delhi: Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of its August 31 judgement imposing a fine of Re 1 on him in connection with criminal contempt of court case over his tweets.

Notably, Bhushan has already paid the fine of Rs 1 but has decided to challenge his conviction in the matter. While paying the fine, Bhushan had made it clear that paying the fine in the registry did not mean that he accepted the Supreme Court’s judgement.

Bhushan had, on September 14, filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its judgement convicting him and imposing a fine of Re 1 on him for criminal contempt of court in the suo motu contempt case over his tweets.

Earlier, he had filed another plea in the top court seeking directions for an appeal against conviction in criminal contempt cases to be heard by a larger and a different bench.

Bhushan was convicted and a fine of Re 1 was imposed on him by the Supreme Court in connection with a suo motu criminal contempt of court case over two of his tweets.

One of the tweets, posted on June 29, was related to his post on a picture of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde on a high-end bike. In his second tweet, Bhushan had expressed his opinion on the role of the last four CJIs amid the state of affairs in the country.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is also hearing another contempt of court case against Bhushan for his interview to a magazine in 2009 in which he was quoted as saying that half of the 16 former Chief Justices of India (CJIs) were corrupt.