An 11-year-old case of contempt of the Supreme Court against senior advocate Prashant Bhushan and journalist Tarun Tejpal was heard in the Supreme Court on Monday. During the hearing, Bhushan offered his explanation but the court refused to accept it.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and Justice BR Gavai and Krishna Murari said it would hear the case and see if the remarks on corruption about judges were actually contempt. The bench has fixed the next hearing in the case on August 17.

Indeed, the Supreme Court today had to decide whether to accept the explanation of the senior counsel in the contempt case or to proceed with this action. In a November 2009 interview with a Tehelka magazine, the apex court had issued a contempt notice to Bhushan and Tejpal for allegedly attacking some of the current and former judges of the apex court. Tarun Tejpal was then editor of Tehelka magazine.

Bhushan has submitted his clarification in the apex court while Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal has apologized. The court said that it would consider in this case whether the corruption remarks about the judges were actually contempt.

On August 4, the apex court made it clear to Bhushan and Tejpal that they would go for hearing if they did not accept their explanation or apology in the case.

At the same time, in the earlier hearing, Bhushan regretted his statement in 2009 but did not apologize unconditionally. Bhushan said that what I meant then was not to say corruption but to not perform duty properly.