Advocate Prashant Bhushan on Monday deposited the Re 1 fine imposed on him by the Supreme Court, but said this doesn’t mean that he is accepting the court’s judgement.
Bhushan spoke to mediapersons outside the Supreme Court and said that he is going to file a review petition against the top court’s judgement today.
“I am going to the Supreme Court registry to deposit Re 1 fine imposed on me in relation to the contempt of court case. That I am depositing the fine does not mean I am accepting the judgment. I will be filing a review petition against it today,” he said.
He had filed a fresh petition on Saturday, seeking the right of appeal against the original criminal contempt cases.
Bhushan has demanded that his appeal should be heard by a larger and different bench of the Supreme Court.
In the plea filed through lawyer Kamini Jaiswal, Bhushan has suggested procedural changes to reduce the chances of “arbitrary, vengeful and high-handed decisions” in criminal contempt cases saying that in such cases the top court is the aggrieved party, the “prosecutor, the witness and the judge” and hence they raise fear of inherent bias.
“This would act as a vital safeguard against wrongful conviction and would truly enable the provision of truth as a defense,” Bhushan said in his plea.
The Supreme Court recently held Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt for his tweets criticising the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. The court had on August 31 imposed a token fine of Re 1 as a punishment.
Bhushan was asked to deposit the amount by with the Supreme Court registry by September 15, failing which he would have to undergo three-month jail term and debarment from law practice for three years.
Another contempt case against Bhushan, initiated by the top court in 2009 for his remarks that some past Chief Justices of India were corrupt, is also pending before the apex court.
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