New Delhi: The Supreme Court initiated Tuesday suo motu (on its own) contempt proceedings against activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan. The Supreme Court did so for his alleged derogatory tweets against the judiciary. The apex court has also initiated contempt proceedings against Twitter India on which Bhushan had posted some alleged derogatory comments. The matter is scheduled to be heard Wednesday by a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.
Bhushan has been raising issues pertaining to judiciary. Recently he was very critical and vocal of the way in which the top court handled the matters related to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He also made statements relating to the treatment meted out to jailed activists like Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj who are accused in Bhima-Koregaon case.
As of now, it is not clear as to which tweets of Bhushan have been prime facie construed as contemptous by the apex court.
Earlier also, the apex court in November 2009, had issued contempt notice to Bhushan for allegedly casting aspersions on some sitting and former top court judges in an interview to a news magazine.
The matter is pending in the apex court and as per the record available on the top court’s website, the case was last heard in May 2012.