A three-justice bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday gave activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan time to reconsider controversial tweets on the higher judiciary that led to him being convicted for contempt of court.
The Supreme Court 'offer' came on a day of dramatic statements. Bhushan had been found guilty of contempt of court on August 14 and his sentencing hearing was on Thursday.
Bhushan told the bench, led by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Krishna Murari, that his tweets were "well-considered and well thought of". “I did not tweet in a fit of absent mindedness. It would be insincere and contemptuous on my part to offer an apology for the tweets that expressed what was and continues to be my bona fide belief. Therefore, I can only humbly paraphrase what the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi had said in his trial: I do not ask for mercy. I do not appeal to magnanimity," Bhushan said in his statement to the court.
"I am here, therefore, to cheerfully submit to any penalty that can lawfully be inflicted upon me for what the Court has determined to be an offence, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen,” he said.
Justice Mishra told Bhushan's lawyers, Dushyant Dave and Rajeev Dhavan, that the bench was offering Bhushan an opportunity to reconsider and come back in "two-three days" time.
Bhushan, however, rebuffed the offer, noting he did not wish to reconsider and the time would serve no purpose. To this, Justice Mishra said, "You better reconsider it... don't just apply legal brain here."
Meanwhile, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal urged the Supreme Court not to punish Bhushan.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal urged the bench not to award any punishment to Bhushan in the contempt case, saying he has already been convicted.
The bench said it cannot consider the request of Venugopal unless Bhushan reconsiders his earlier stand of not apologising for his tweets.
The tone, tenor and content of Bhushan's statement makes it worse; is it defence or aggravation, the court told Venugopal.
The top court said it can be very lenient if there is realisation of mistake, and posted the matter for further hearing on August 24.
