Prashant Bhushan deposits Re one fine, asks SC to review contempt judgement

Advocate Prashant Bhushan on Monday deposited Re one fine in the Supreme Court but asked it to review the judgment that held him guilty of suo motu contempt of court for his tweets against the judiciary.

He contended that the August 14 judgment that convicted him "is erroneous on its face because it does not consider the totality of facts".

Bhushan asked the court to rehear the matter after granting an open court hearing in the matter.

"Just because I am paying the fine does not mean that I have accepted the verdict. We have filed a writ petition that there must be an appeal procedure created for conviction under the contempt," he told reporters.

In his petition, Bhushan raised several grounds, including that the judgment has failed to consider the tweet in context or deal with the explanation offered by him for his tweets posted in June this year.

He also said the matter should not have been heard by Justice Arun Mishra (since retired) as he has on several occasions, orally accused the petitioner of committing contempt of court when he had merely mentioned that it may be inappropriate for a particular judge to hear a particular case in circumstances where conflict of interest was involved.

Justice Mishra led three-judge bench had imposed Re one fine on Bhushan, failing which he would have to serve three months jail and debarment to practice for three years.

He asked the court to hear his review petition along with a writ petition filed him seeking a right of intra-court appeal for a person convicted for criminal contempt by the top court, before a larger and different bench. He also asked the court to issue directions for framing rules and guidelines in this regard or allow hearing of review petition in case of conviction before the open court by a different bench.

Bhushan is facing another contempt case arising out of his interview with Tehelka magazine in 2009, accusing more than half of 16 former Chief Justices of India of corruption.