New Delhi: August 24, 2020. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, held guilty of contempt by the Supreme Court for two of his tweets, said on Monday that the remarks in question represent his beliefs and apologising for it “would be insincere”.
“I expressed myself in good faith, not to malign the Supreme Court or any particular Chief Justice, but to offer constructive criticism so that court can arrest any drift away from its long-standing role as guardian of Constitution and custodian of people’s rights,” he said in his supplementary statement. “Offering insincere apology will amount to contempt of my conscience and of an institution,” he further added, reported news agency PTI.
Bhushan said as an officer of court he believes as a duty to speak up when he believe there is a deviation from its sterling record. He further said that an apology cannot be a mere incantation and any apology has to, as the court has itself put it, be sincerely made. “This is especially so when I have made the statements bonafide and pleaded truths with full details, which have not been dealt with by the Court. If I retract a statement before this court that I otherwise believe to be true or offer an insincere apology that in my eyes would amount to the contempt of my conscience and of an institution that I hold in highest esteem.”
Prashant Bhushan writes: I do not ask for mercy, open criticism of any institution is necessary to safeguard the constitutional order
Last week, the apex court, after hearing arguments on the quantum of punishment to be awarded to Bhushan, reserved its order and gave him time till today to apologise. Bhushan, however, firmly stood his ground making it clear to the court that he didn’t want to apologise and in this “moment of history,” this was his “responsibility to the future.”
“I find it hard to believe that the Court finds my tweet ‘has the effect of destabilising the very foundation of this important pillar of Indian democracy.’ I can only reiterate that these two tweets represented my bonafide beliefs, the expression of which must be permissible in any democracy”, Bhushan had said in the statement. “I did not tweet in a fit of absent mindedness. It would be insincere and contemptuous on my part to offer an apology for the tweets that expressed what was and continues to be my bonafide belief.”
“Therefore, I can only humbly paraphrase what the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi had said in his trial: I do not ask for mercy. I do not appeal to magnanimity. I am here, therefore, to cheerfully submit to any penalty that can lawfully be inflicted upon me for what the Court has determined to be an offence, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen.”
The apex court, on August 14, had held Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt for his two derogatory tweets against the judiciary saying they cannot be said to be a fair criticism of the functioning of the judiciary made in the public interest. He faces simple imprisonment of up to six months or with a fine of up to Rs 2,000 or with both as punishment.
