It further stated it was “unfortunate that when political ends of lawyers are not served by a decision of the court, they vilify the court by making scandalising remarks.(Representational)

THE BAR Council of Maharashtra and Goa (BCMG) on Wednesday passed a resolution condemning “efforts to pressurise the judiciary” and stated the “trend to malign the Supreme Court is dangerous and must be dealt with an iron hand”. It also said the comments made by advocate Prashant Bhushan about the judiciary were “unfortunate”.

On August 14, the bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari of the Supreme Court held Bhushan guilty of contempt of court for two tweets. The first tweet, posted on June 29, related to Bhushan’s comment/post on a picture of CJI Sharad Arvind Bobde on a high-end bike. In his second tweet, Bhushan had expressed his opinion on the role of last four CJIs amid the state of affairs in the country.

A letter written by BCMG chairman advocate Subhash J Ghatge to the Chief Justice of India stated that a full house resolution was unanimously passed by the elected members of the council on Wednesday “reposing confidence in the judicial system”.

“We unanimously state that the efforts of pressurising judges, by making reckless statements are in total derogation of the Constitution of India, the trend to malign the Supreme Court is dangerous and must be dealt with an iron hand,” the letter stated.

It further stated it was “unfortunate that when political ends of lawyers are not served by a decision of the court, they vilify the court by making scandalising remarks. The Supreme Court of India and the judges are subject to both scurrilous language, malicious attacks and scandalising remarks. Legitimate criticism of both judgements and functioning of the institution has always existed, however, when the criticism is calculated and actuated by malice, it is the authority of the court which is undermined”.