Prashant Bhushan. (File)

The Supreme Court on Monday said the 2009 criminal contempt case against advocate Prashant Bhushan for alleged statements against judiciary in an interview raises some larger, pertinent questions which it would like to examine.

“The questions framed by this court have certain ramifications,” a bench headed by Justiace Arun Mishra said.

The court was hearing criminal contempt charges against Bhushan and Tarun Tejpal, former editor of Tehelka magazine, for alleged remarks against the judiciary in an interview to the publication.

The bench said it would like to hear from the counsel on whether such statements can be made against sitting and former judges, and if so in what circumstance they can be made and what process has to be adopted for this.

Appearing for Bhushan, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan told the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, that corruption allegations per se cannot be contempt.

Justice Mishra pointed out that there is a judgment by Justice J S Verma, which observed that instances where such allegations involve judges should not be made public at the first instance, and must instead be reported to a court for further inquiry. “We want to hear, because if the question is left then it will not be better for later on,” Justice Mishra said.

Dhavan agreed that the questions raised by the bench are meaningful and added that a larger bench should examine them.

The court will now hear it on August 24.

During the hearing, Dhavan also told the bench that its judgment on Friday, holding Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt in another case related to two of his tweets, suffers from “great imbalances” and that he intends to file a review petition.