Prashant Bhushan Refuses to Apologise Before Supreme Court, Says ‘Would be Contempt of Conscience’

The apex court had given Prashant Bhushan two days' time to submit an "unconditional apology" and asked him to "reconsider" his statement.

New Delhi: Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who has been held “guilty of contempt of court” for his tweets on the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, on Monday refused to apologise as he submitted his supplementary reply before the Supreme Court.

“I believe that the Supreme Court is the last bastion of hope for protection of fundamental rights,” Bhushan said before the top court, adding that it was his bona fide belief he continues to hold.

“If I retract a statement before this court that I otherwise believe to be true or offer an insincere apology, that in my eyes would amount to contempt of my conscience and of an institution that I hold in highest esteem,” the activist-lawyer asserted.

The Supreme Court had, on Thursday last week, refused Bhushan’s explanation regarding his tweets and rejected his plea to defer the hearing on his sentence till his review petition against conviction for criminal contempt is filed and decided.

However, the apex court gave him two days’ time to submit an “unconditional apology” and asked him to “reconsider” his statement.

On August 14, the Supreme Court initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Bhushan for allegedly making derogatory comments on Twitter that alleged accused the last four Chief Justices of a role in the “destruction of democracy” during undeclared “emergency” for the last six years.

A subsequent tweet alleged that the “present Chief Justice” – SA Bobde – rode a bike in Nagpur “while keeping the apex court in lockdown and denying citizens their right to access to justice”.

The apex court had previously issued a notice to Bhushan, along with Tehelka editor Tejpal, in November 2009 for allegedly casting aspersions on some sitting and former top court judges in an interview to the news magazine. The matter was listed earlier this month after the last hearing in May 2012.