Supreme Court: Prashant Bhushan had refused to retract his comments or apologise.
Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, held guilty of contempt for his tweets criticising Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and the Supreme Court, was today 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 told NDTV.
Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav, who worked with Prashant Bhushan in the Aaam Aadmi Party before they were expelled from it, tweeted:
Karti P Chidambaram, Congress MP and son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, meanwhile, offered to "contribute" towards the fine provided Mr Bhushan was willing to pay it.
Je suis #PrashantBhushan. Happy to contribute towards your fine of Rs.1, if you choose to pay. @pbhushan1
- Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) August 31, 2020
NCP leader Majeed Memon also praised the top court judgment and urged Mr Bhushan to work together to "enhance the glory and prestige of our courts".
"Hail SC observations " freedom of expression can not be curtailed" . Hence symbolic fine of ₹1 on Prashant Bhushan. Let us all hereafter, including Mr Bhushan, work together to enhance the glory and prestige of our courts," he tweeted.
Meanwhile, some BJP leader said it was a "smart" move by the court to make Mr Bhushan to admit his offence.
BJP leader Amit Malviya, in-charge of BJP's national Information & Technology, meanwhile wondered whether Prashant Bhushan will pay the fine and admit to his offence or be "more honourable" and risk jail sentence.
"Smart of Supreme Court to impose a 1 rupee fine on Prashant Bhushan, failing which he would be barred from practising for 3 years and face jail term of 3 months... Either way Bhushan loses. Will he pay the fine and admit to his offence or be more honourable? Hobson's choice!," he tweeted.
"Rs 1 is louder than a punch of thousands of crore," said Mr Malviya's party colleague and senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia tweeted while adding that no one was the law. "A slap of Rs 1 is louder than a punch of thousands of crore, this should have happened a long time back. No one is above the law. We are all foot soldiers of the institution, the institution is to be protected at any cost," Mr Bhatia tweeted.
"Check mate!!", tweeted BJP leader Priti Gandhi using hashtag #ShowSomeSpineDontPayFine.
Shortly after the judgment, Prashant Bhushan, who was photographed holding up a Re 1 coin, told reporters he would reveal later today whether he would pay the fine or confront the other options. The coin was handed to him by his lawyer Rajeev Dhavan after the order.