Prashant Bhushan fined Re. 1 for contempt of court

Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, held guilty of contempt for his tweet criticising Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and the Supreme Court, was on August 31 fined Re 1 by the top court. The 63-year-old has been asked to pay the fine by September 15, failing which he will face jail for three months and a ban from practicing for three years.

“Freedom of speech cannot be curtailed,” said the Supreme Court while handing down the sentence, referring to “sane advice” from Attorney General KK Venugopal to the court and to Prashant Bhushan.

The judgment drew instant reactions from members of the legal fraternity and politicians, most of whom praised the top court for letting off the lawyer-activist with a “token punishment”.

“Without commenting on the merits of the case, the court has shown maturity. It would have been better if he had been forgiven. Court could have given him warning also but this is the best scenario. But this is a symbolic punishment, the minimum prescribed in the law. Court wanted to show majesty of law is Supreme and some punishment had to be given once found guilty. The punishment of Re 1 is token punishment and the rest are default clauses,” former Chief Justice of India Justice RM Lodha said.