SC Imposes Re 1 Fine On Prashant Bhushan For Criminal Contempt, Will Be Jailed For 3 Months If He Defaults

The Supreme Court (SC) bench led by Justice Arun Mishra on Monday (31 August) imposed a Re 1 fine on advocate Prashant Bhushan as punishment for his criminal contempt of court.

In case Prashant Bhushan fails to deposit the Re 1 fine, he will be jailed for three months and debarred from practising law for a period of three years.

Bhushan was found guilty of serious contempt of court by the Supreme Court over his tweets against the Chief Justice of India and the apex court.

He was initially supposed to be sentenced on 20 August but the order was subsequently reserved by the apex court.

The proceedings against Bhushan were initiated over the tweets he made on 27 and 29 June:

When historians in the future look back at the last six years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the SC in this destruction, and more particularly the role of the last four CJIs

The CJI rides a Rs 50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] leader at Raj Bhavan, Nagpur, without wearing a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC on lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access justice!

Another criminal contempt case against Prashant Bhushan is currently being heard.