The curtains came down today over the sordid circus of a juvenile defiance shown by the leading and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan against a few Supreme Court judges, the sitting Chief Justice in particular. His two tweets were found contemptuous, and Bhushan was given an option to apologize to the court over his act, which he refuse to do, on which I have posted earlier.
Prashant, the activist lawyer and politician, saw an opportunity to hits two birds with one stone; by refusing to apologize, he was scoring a brownie point, while undermining an institution, the last refuge for any law-abiding citizen in India. It is easy to shoot to fame by becoming anti-establishment, and Bhushan is one such. Filled with negativity, he has been expelled by AAP, of which he was one of the founders.
Bhushan had thought he had the Supreme Court by its neck but underestimated the wisdom of the lordships. The court would not recall their order on Bhushan of being contemptuous and today levied a fine of Rupee one as a fine, to be paid before the 15. 09.2020and in his non-payment, he must serve three months in jail and forsake his right to practice in the Supreme Court for three years.
A few may have expected a steely resolved Bhushan refusing to pay the fine, an admittance of guilt and to walk with his head high into the prison. They were in for a disappointment. How can he go then to a hungry media to sell his stories, where the accused are restrained from defending? Bhushan did not even wait until the 15th September, but promptly paid the fine of Re.1/- and walked away.
Bhushan lost a great opportunity to become a hero of a fight he had begun, by denying himself the privilege to enter into the famed walls of Tihar Jail. He was just another ordinary politician-lawyer! Arundhati Roy, in contrast, braved a day’s jail term in the Narmada Dam case.
It reminds me of a story, of a 1143.61-meter-long-tunnel, in the Kalka-Shimla section, dug from the opposite ends, which never met due to wrong alignments. The British authorities fined the errant engineer Barog Re.1/- as fine. The engineer committed suicide, unable to digest the humiliation.
The fine may be an insignificant amount, but came with a rider, don’t pay and chose to go to jail. If the fight of Bhushan was based on principles, he should have chosen the later options, served a sentence and become a champion of unbridled free speech. Surely, he is not made of the stuff.
Some can deify Bhushan, but it is within my right to criticize the orchestrated pulling down of the judiciary by a few. Please debate, but please spare me the lectures on free speech!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
Pic: Bhushan with his lawyer Dhawan and a Re.1/- coin
1 Comment
Well presented