Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, who has been convicted of contempt of court, has told the Supreme Court that “at present there is no effective procedure to deal with corruption in the judiciary, so such issues raised by lawyers in public interest fall within the scope of freedom of expression needed.”
Prashant Bhushan has indicated in a written submission to the court that the Supreme Court had indicated in the 1995 C. Ravichandran Iyer Versus Justice AM Bhattacharjee case that members of the Bar and others were not against the judges in public but in the internal process question should be raised. However, it is now clear that the internal process is inadequate and ineffective. The process of impeachment is quite complex and political. Therefore, at present there is no effective procedure to deal with corruption in the judiciary.
Through lawyers who understand the corruption of judiciary from their experience, only they can raise this issue. Allegations of corruption should be included under Article 19 (1) (a) of freedom of expression in the public interest and responsibility of lawyers in the judiciary.
Bhushan has said in his submission that he has already explained in detail that he used the word corruption extensively. In such a situation, it is necessary to check that if the word corruption causes contempt of court, then what is the meaning of this word corruption.
Bhushan also said that in several previous judgments and reports, the judges have discussed the corruption in the judiciary in their statements and in the past had asked the Parliamentary Committee on Prevention of Corruption in 1964 to review it. In an interview given to Tehelka magazine in 2009 and his tweet regarding CGI, the court has held him guilty of contempt. The court will debate Prashant Bhushan’s sentence on 20 August.
Abhishek Kumar@samacharline