End contempt of court provision, says Prashant Bhushan

NEW DELHI: Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, convicted and fined by Supreme Court for contempt of court, said this power is sometimes misused or abused in an attempt to stifle free speech or discussion about the judiciary.
He called the contempt of court jurisdiction “very dangerous” and said it should be abolished. “Every citizen in a democracy should be able to speak freely but unfortunately that has also been treated as contempt of court by scandalising,” Bhushan said.
“In this, the judge acts as accuser, prosecutor and as a judge,” Bhushan said at a webinar organised by Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia. “It is a very dangerous jurisdiction in which judges act in their own cause and that is why in all countries this power to punish has been abolished,” he said.