Supreme Court has been approached by a law student seeking initiation of proceedings for criminal contempt against comic artist Rachita Taneja for her tweets concerning the top Court.
It is well settled that a citizen while exercising right under Article 19(1) is entitled to make a fair criticism of a judge, judiciary and its functioning. However, the right under Article 19(1) is subject to restriction under clause (2) of Article 19.
The Supreme Court bench led by Justice Arun Mishra today fined advocate Prashant Bhushan a symbolic Re 1 for contempt of court. The bench said he refused to apologise despite given the opportunity and also released his statement to the media, causing further publicity.
The Supreme Court today reserved its order on the quantum of punishment in the current suo moto criminal contempt case against advocate Prashant Bhushan for his two tweets.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan has filed his supplementary statement before the Supreme Court in the suo motu criminal contempt proceedings initiated against him, refusing to tender an unconditional apology.