Senior Advocate and Human Rights activist Prashant Bhushan paid the fine of Rs. 1 on September 14, 2020. He deposited the fine in the Supreme Court Registry. The fine was taken from him in the contempt case over two of his tweets. He also told that he has been receiving funds from various parts of the country and with the help of that he will be creating “Truth Fund” in order to help and provide legal aid to those people who are jailed by the state for raising voice in order to dissent. He said that “The State is using all means to silence voices of dissent. The ‘Truth Fund’ will be used to protect the personnel liberty to those persons who face State’s persecution”. He also firmly clarified that submitting a fine does not mean that he has accepted the judgment; also, he filled a review petition. He said that “Me paying the fine of Rs. 1 does not mean that I accept the Supreme Court’s judgment. I am filing a Review Petition in the Supreme Court today”.
The Supreme Court asked him to pay the fine till September 15, 2020, failing which have caused him a 3 months sentence and 3 years debarment from Supreme Court. It was August 31, 2020, when Justice Arun Mishra pronounced the sentence of fine in a contempt case. The bench said “If we do not take cognizance of such conduct it will give a wrong message to the lawyers and litigants throughout the country. However, by showing magnanimity, instead of imposing any severe punishment, we are sentencing the contemnor with a nominal fine of Rs. 1 instead”.
Prashant Bhushan through his lawyer Kamini Jaiswal has filed another fresh petition in the Supreme Court of India seeking an intra-court appeal. In the appeal, he gives grounds such as international law, Article 14, 19, and 21 as a base to give allowance to the intra-court appeal. He further said that under Article 129 when SC takes suo moto cognizance there is no other judicial body for the person to appeal hence it violated the right to appeal.
This whole thing started due to two tweets of human rights activist Prashant Bhushan in which he disgraced the Supreme Court of India and also Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. Affirming and justifying his comment, Bhushan on this whole thing said “My tweets were nothing but a small attempt to discharge what I considered to be my highest duty at this juncture in the history of our republic. I do not tweet in a fit of absence mindedness. It would be insincere and contemptuous on my part to offer an apology for the tweets that exposed what was and continues to be my bonafide belief. Therefore, I can only humbly paraphrase what the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi has said in his trial: I do not ask for mercy. I do not appeal to magnanimity. I am here, therefore, to cheerfully submit to any penalty that can lawfully be inflicted upon me for what the Court has determined to be an offense, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen”.
