A Supreme Court Advocate, Adv Sunil Kumar Singh wrote a letter to Attorney General of India K K Venugopal seeking his consent to move a criminal contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan. Earlier, this year he already faced a criminal contempt proceedings where he wrote an unjustified and false tweet against the CJI.
In this recent letter Adv. Sunil moved to AG as Prashant Bhushan again made a defamatory and false statement on CJI and his personal life and also connecting with a pending case.
In the said tweet Mr. Bhushan questioned our CJI for accepting the offer of private chopper to visit Kanha National park and then visit back his home in Nagpur where there is suit pending before him of MLA disqualification or defection.
Adv Singh said that such kind of tweets hampers the reputation of court, interfaces with proceedings of case.
As per section 15 of Contempt of Courts Act,1971:- Cognizance of criminal contempt in other cases.—
(1) In the case of a criminal contempt, other than a contempt referred to in section 14, the Supreme Court or the High Court may take action on its own motion or on a motion made by—
(a) the Advocate-General, or
(b) any other person, with the consent in writing to the Advocate-General, 3 [or]
3 [© in relation to the High Court for the Union territory of Delhi, such Law Officer as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify in this behalf, or any other person, with the consent in writing of such Law Officer.]
Adv Singh said that in common law jurisdictions, the most significant role of contempt of court law is the application of the sub judice rule where no one should interfere with legal proceedings that are pending.
Also Prashant Bhushan has filed a review petition against Contempt verdict and sentencing order in the past case where he was fined a penalty of ₹1 on August 31st, 2020.
Refer link for tweet:-
