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Supreme Court issued notice to lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, after he Centre and the Attorney General filed petitions accusing him of contempt for his tweets on the appointment of Nageshwar Rao as the interim chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
While issuing the notice, the bench compromising of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Navin Sinha agreed to consider on the issue of advocates speaking in sub-judice matter. Advocate Bhushan accepted the notice and sought three weeks of time for filling a reply.
Mr. KK Venugopal told the court that the matter of Mr. Rao’s appointement is pending before the Court then Mr. Bhushan should refrain from tweeting accusations against the government. He filled a separate petition, not pressing for punishment, but wanted the Court to decide the extent to which a lawyer can make public statements in sub-judice matters. But the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, “The Attorney General is magnanimous. But the Centre wants Bhushan punished as this is not the first instance he has done this."
"Contempt is a bramhastra, it should not be used ordinarily," the top court said, adding that "punishment to a lawyer should be the last resort".
The Court however seemed to be in the favour of such pronouncement and stated that “We are not averse to media reporting on court proceedings but the lawyers involved in a case should resist from making public statement in sub-judice matter.”
“We are on the larger issue. The time has come to settle the issue. It has been noticed that's sometime the lawyers can't control the temptation to go to media. Bar has been protecting the Institution but now it is different", said Justice Mishra.
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