Prashant Bhushan. PTI file

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 5

More than three months after the Supreme Court convicted Prashant Bhushan of criminal contempt of court and slapped a token fine of Re 1, the activist-lawyer has landed in a fresh controversy over his alleged comments against the judiciary.

Advocate Sunil Kumar Singh has sought Attorney General KK Venugopal’s consent to initiate criminal contempt of court proceedings against Bhushan for his recent comments made in an interview published in an English daily.

In the said interview Bhushan had allegedly said that the independence of the judiciary had collapsed and that the Supreme Court didn’t function in an impartial manner.

Singh said it was a “gross insinuation against the entirety of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, that the Supreme Court of India is not an independent and impartial institution but is willing to kowtow to the Government. It is highly objectionable and audacious. It is a malicious attack on the hon’ble Supreme Court.”

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra (since retd) had held Bhushan guilty of contempt of court in August for scandalising the Judiciary by his tweets against CJI Bobde and four former CJIs. He was fined Re 1 which he has already deposited.

He has already paid the fine and challenged the conviction verdict. While paying the fine imposed on him for criminal contempt of court, Bhushan had said, “I don’t accept the verdict.” He has also sought a review of the verdict.

The Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) had in September issued a notice to Bhushan asking him to explain why proceedings should not be initiated to revoke his enrolment as a lawyer.

The BCD had acted on the directions of the Bar Council of India – which regulates legal profession in the country—to “examine” Bhushan’s contemptuous tweets against the CJI and four ex-CJIs following his conviction by the Supreme Court.