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"Stop Miscarriage Of Justice": 1,500 Lawyers Express Dismay Over Conviction Of Prashant Bhushan
Writer: Navya Singh
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India, 18 Aug 2020 6:11 AM GMT
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The lawyers also urged the apex court to hold an open hearing after the pandemic by a larger bench to “review the standards of criminal contempt”.
Over 1,500 lawyers from across the country urged the Supreme Court on August 17 to "take corrective steps to prevent miscarriage of justice", expressing "dismay" over the conviction of advocate Prashant Bhushan by the top court in a contempt of court case.
The lawyers said that a Bar "silenced under the threat of contempt" will "undermine the independence and ultimately the strength" of the Supreme Court.
The signatories include Sriram Panchu, Arvind Datar, Shyam Divan, Menaka Guru-swamy, Raju Ramachandran, Biswajit Bhattacharya, Navroz Seervai, Janak Dwarkadas, Iqbal Chagla, Darius Khambata, Vrinda Grover, Mihir Desai, Kamini Jaiswal and Karuna Nundy.
"While Mr Prashant Bhushan as a lawyer of good standing of the Supreme Court, may not be an ordinary man, his tweets do not say anything out of the ordinary, other than what is routinely expressed about the court's working in recent years by many on public fora and on social media. Even some retired judges of the Supreme Court have expressed somewhat similar views," the statement said.
The lawyers also urged the apex court to hold an open hearing after the pandemic by a larger bench to "review the standards of criminal contempt".
"This judgment does not restore the authority of the court in the eyes of the public. Rather, it will discourage lawyers from being outspoken. From the days of the supersession of judges and the events thereafter, it has been the Bar that has been the first to stand in defence of the independence of the judiciary," the statement read.
On August 14, bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari held activist and lawyer Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court for two tweets which the court said were based on "distorted facts", constituted a "scurrilous/ malicious… attack on the "entire Supreme Court". The court also stated that the tweets had the effect of "destabilising the very foundation" of the judiciary.
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