Prashant Bhushan vs. Supreme Court: Outpourings of Outrage Make Some Impact: Press Conference by Bhushan at 4 PM.

[Sukla Sen]

 I. The sentencing of Bhushan by the three-judge bench of the Court was delivered today.
The exercise was, however, rather intriguingly a bit delayed.
In any case, by 12:10, Justice Arun Mishra - the head of the bench, commenced reading out of the judgement.

II. The explanatory part of the judgement is sharply critical, and condemnatory, of Bhushan.

III. The operative part is that Bhushan is fined Re 1 for the offence of criminal contempt of court by way of his (two) tweets and will have to deposit the fine with the court’s registry by September 15.
In case of default, he will have to undergo a jail term of three months and will also be debarred from legal practice for three years.

IV. It bears mentioning that during hearing on August 20th, while refusing to entertain Bhushan's plea for review of the guilty verdict delivered on August 14th, the Court had promised that whatever sentence (to be) pronounced by the bench won't come into effect till Bhushan's review plea is, subsequently, considered and decided (by an appropriate bench).

V. It's also pertinent to mention that yet another contempt case is pending against him which has been revived after about eleven years and is due for being placed before an appropriate bench on Sept. 10.

VI. The CJAR (Campaign for Judicial Accountability & Reforms) and Swaraj Abhiyan will hold a press conference today (August 31, 2020) at 4 pm at the Press Cub of India, New Delhi.
The press conference will be addressed by Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Anjali Bhardwaj.

VII. For a background, including the issue of right of free speech vis-a-vis the Supreme Court of India: <http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article9873.html>.)

Sukla  

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Peace Is Doable

[Sukla Sen]

I. Bhushan would pay one rupee fine, but reserves the right to contest both the guilty verdict and the punishment.

II. Even in the past, the Supreme Court had debarred advocates charged of contempt from practsing.

The SC is law unto itself; in other words, it can deliver whatever judgement, howsover ridiculous it may appear, it wants to.

Only a larger bench can overrule.

III. By paying that ridiculous one rupee fine - for the crime of shaking the very foundation of constitutional democracy(!), without any demur (or cheerfully submitting) Bhushan gains the psychological upper hand.

That's how I get it.

Sukla 

[Sukla Sen]

I, for one, could have not agreed more with you on your assessment of today's India.

On that, I've the (very unhappy) satisfaction of sharing the very same page with you.

The issue, however, is how to effectively fight back under the prevailing circumstances.

I'd argue, it's quite legitimate to have somewhat divergent assessments and opinions among those on the other side of the barricade facing the evil regime. 

Sukla 

On Tue, 1 Sep 2020, 06:53 G G Parikh <janata...@gmail.com wrote:

I am afraid I disagree. Today the place for those who are against the present government’s policies   is jail. And the crowded conditions of the jails  can not be an excuse. The sooner we learn to treat the jail as a temple the better. In any case what more he can do as a lawyer. A judiciary packed with committed judges would not allow him the satisfaction of winning a just case.

G

Sent from my iPad

On 31-Aug-2020, at 10:38 PM, Sukla Sen <sukl...@gmail.com> wrote:



Dear GG,

Let me respectfully submit that I'd imagine that you're far from alone and quite a few may feel it that way.

One would rather justifiably argue that it would have been the "moral" Gandhian stand.

In fact, Bhushan could also, in a slightly altered version, very well have first, once again, sought review of the conviction of the judgement and a stay on the sentence till it's decided.

But, it's not too difficult to broadly prefigure how the Court would have responded.

Either way, what, now, looks pretty much like a (near) "victory" would have looked like a "moral" protest by a (physically) "defeated".

This is apart from the (somewhat unknown) cost of being imprisoned in a crowded jail with the pandemic raging,  plus a three-year bar on practising.

In my own personal assessment - which I guess most of us will concur with, Bhushan, today, is just no individual; he has come to represent a "cause" and become a sort of its masthead - only if for a while.

In my view, it's necessary to not only take a "moral" stand but also to score "victories" - in these dark and difficult times, to lift the public morale.

Bhushan's stand, I'd argue, strikes an optimum and judicious balance. 

It's a (near) "victory" - brought about by outpourings of public outrage, without giving up on the "morality".

He had, while refusing to apologise, clearly stated that he'd cheerfully submit to the lawful punishment meted out to him.

That's what he has underlined in today's press conference: <https://mobile.twitter.com/mirrornow/status/1300384627626917888>.

Of course, views and assessments may differ.

But, right at this point of time, one should, perhaps, desist from chpping away his credibility.

That's my humble submission.

Sukla 

On Mon, 31 Aug 2020, 19:34 G G Parikh <janata...@gmail.com wrote:

May I suggest that Shri Bhushan should have preferred to go to jail and said that the fine was ridiculous.

G

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