Attorney General denies consent for contempt proceedings on Bhushan

Attorney General KK Venugopal has declined consent to provoke prison contempt proceedings in opposition to lawyer Prashant Bhushan for his tweets wherein he was important of Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde being supplied a particular helicopter by the Madhya Pradesh authorities, saying the activist-lawyer later expressed remorse.

The consent of the topmost regulation officer was sought by one advocate Sunil Singh to provoke contempt proceedings in opposition to Bhushan for his October 21 tweet saying that the activist-lawyer related “the personal life of CJI” with a pending case earlier than him.

Though Venugopal termed Bhushan’s earlier tweet concerning the CJI as “wholly unwarranted, improper, devoid of legal basis and prima facie contumacious”, he declined the consent contemplating the remorse expressed in his later tweet.

“I am of the opinion that the imputations contained in three tweets to the effect that the Chief Justice of India committed an act of impropriety in accepting facilities of the state of Madhya Pradesh during his visit to Kanha National Park while a case pertaining to the disqualification of certain members of the legislative assembly of MP was pending before him were wholly unwarranted, improper , devoid of legal basis and prima facie contumacious for following reasons,” Venugopal stated in his response to the lawyer.

He stated firstly the CJI is likely one of the highest constitutional functionaries within the nation and is entitled to obtain protocol as befits the stature of his workplace and the state visitors are entitled to be prolonged acceptable safety.

The high regulation officer stated he was initially of the thoughts to grant the consent to provoke proceedings for prison contempt. “However, I must bring to your attention subsequent developments … he has expressed regret for the error made in his earlier tweet on October 21. He has stated publicly that it was incorrect to state that the fate of the government of Madhya Pradesh depended on the case pending before the CJI… “In these circumstances, I do not think that it would be in public interest to give consent for proceedings on the basis of the original tweet in view of the subsequent tweet expressing regret. I accordingly decline consent,” Venugopal stated,   The Attorney General stated the area CJI visited has been a Maoist affected area and that’s the reason he was given the helicopter facility.

It is important to notice that on November 4, a bench headed by the CJI disposed of a plea that had raised the difficulty of pendency of disqualification proceedings in opposition to some Congress MLAs who had joined the BJP and have been appointed as ministers within the Shivraj Singh Chouhan authorities in Madhya Pradesh.

The high court docket, on August 31, had imposed a token effective of 1 rupee in opposition to Bhushan as punishment within the contempt case in opposition to him.