Supreme Court on Wednesday has issued notices to the Attorney General KK Venugopal and activist lawyer Prashant Bhusan in context to a suo moto contempt proceedings against the lawyer for alleged derogatory remarks against the judiciary on Twitter.
SC bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice B R Gavai, and Justice Krishna Murari has directed the counsel to make Twitter Inc the party in the proceedings instead of Twitter India.
Senior lawyer Sajan Povvayya representing Twitter India suggested that they can disable the derogatory tweets posted by Prashant Bhusan under the top court’s directions.
“Why can’t you do it on your own? Even after we have initiated the contempt proceedings, do you want to wait for a formal order? We think we won’t pass any order and will leave it your wisdom,” responded the bench to the suggestion.
The top court has sought the Attorney General’s cooperation in the matter and has scheduled the further date of hearing on August 5. It is alleged that the Prashant Bhusan’s contemptuous tweets were critical to the top court which were posted on June 27 and June 29.
Supreme Court will take up another matter of contempt against Prashan Bhusan and former Editor-In-Chief of Tehelka magazine Tarun Tejpal on July 24.
In 2009, Prashant Bhusan had made various statements against the former Chief Justices and then CJI SH Kapadia during an interview with Tehelka.
Amicus Curiae Senior advocate Harish Salve in 2009 matter had submitted his report.
Famous senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani was representing activist lawyer Prashant Bhusan in that contempt case. Jethmalani died last year.
