Bhushan's tweets did attack independence of judiciary, Dave to SC

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to drop contempt proceedings against activist advocate Prashant Bhushan, making out a strong defence of the tweets made by him.

He submitted before a bench presided over by Justice Arun Mishra that there was nothing wrong in criticising the judiciary. Those tweets, including the one related to CJI sitting on a high-end bike, did not attack the independence of the judiciary or caused obstruction in administration of justice, he said.

Dave, also SC Bar Association President, referred to sexual harassment case against then CJI Ranjan Gogoi, saying all charges against the woman-employee were dropped and no contempt was issued against her. It showed she was speaking the truth.

He referred to the matter related to Article 370, saying those petitions were not listed for months. Dave also referred to Tablighi Jamaat issue where the matter related to the media's alleged hate campaign was taken cognisance of but was not listed for a long time.

He said people like Bhushan took up cases which executive was not willing to. Bhushan's invaluable and untiring efforts in several landmark cases can't be ignored. Had he been pro-establishment, he would have been conferred with 'Padma Vibhushan', Dave said.

"You are the parents of 130 crore Indians. We know politicians in our country. It is up to the SC to uphold rights of citizens," he submitted, saying he was perhaps appearing last time before the bench.

The court reserved its judgement on the contempt notice issued to Bhushan for his tweets, one related to the CJI sitting on a bike and closing the Supreme Court and another on last four CJIs playing a role in the destruction of democracy.