The Supreme Court has issued a notice of contempt against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan for his alleged comments on the issue of the appointment of M Nageswara Rao as interim chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Stating that the matter was sub-judice and that lawyers should not be ‘making a public statement’ on cases they are involved in, the court has allowed the petition filed by the Centre and earlier by attorney-general KK Venugopal.
Calling contempt proceedings to be the ‘brahmasthra’ to be used most sparingly, the Supreme Court has taken cognizance of the tweets posted by Prashant Bhushan where he alleged that KK Venugopal representing the Central government had deliberately misled the apex court. Bhushan had tweeted on February 1 that the minutes of the High Power Committee meeting attended by the Prime Minister, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and the Justice AK Sikri to appoint the next CBI chief were ‘perhaps fabricated’.
According to reports, he added that he had ‘confirmed personally’ from the leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge that ‘no discussion or debate’ took place in the meeting on the appointment of Rao as the interim CBI chief. Pointing out that the minutes of the meeting carried the signature of Mallikarjun Kharge, KK Venugopal has stated that Prashant Bhushan had deliberately set out to ‘scandalise’ and ‘lower the authority’ of the court with his tweets, besides casting aspersions on the ‘integrity and honesty’ of the attorney-general.
Prashant Bhushan who was present in court has been given a period of three weeks till March 7 to file his response.
