Breaking: Supreme Court issues notice to Prashant Bhushan, Twitter, and AG Venugopal in suo motu contempt case filed over tweet on CJI Bobde

The Supreme Court today issued notice to Attorney General for India KK Venugopal in the suo motu contempt case initiated against Advocate Prashant Bhushan and Twitter..Notice has also been issued to Bhushan and Twitter Inc..A three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari was hearing the case filed against Bhushan and Twitter India over a tweet filed by the former questioning Chief Justice of India SA Bobde for riding a bike in Nagpur..BREAKING: Supreme Court initiates suo motu Contempt of Court proceedings against Prashant Bhushan and Twitter India.At the start of today's hearing, Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya, appearing for Twitter India, informed the Court that Twitter Inc should have been impleaded in the matter instead. He also stated that the tweet in question could be disabled after a court order..In response, Justice Mishra said,"Subject matter of petition is a contempt petition against Prashant Bhushan. The tweet was carried by Times of India.".Justice Mishra also took note of a tweet posted by Bhushan on June 27, through which he questioned the functioning of the Supreme Court, and particularly the last four Chief Justices of India. The tweet states,"When historians in future look back at the last 6 years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the Supreme Court in this destruction, & more particularly the role of the last 4 CJIs.".The Bench proceeded to issue notice to AG KK Venugopal to seek his opinion on the contempt issue. The Court also noted that the correct party in the matter is Twitter Inc of California and not Twitter India. The social media giant was allowed to file an application in this regard.Poovayya was directed to file a reply by the next date of hearing..While issuing notice and taking up the matter suo motu, the top court noted that the tweets by the lawyer brought "disrepute" to the "administration of justice.".We are, prima facie, of the view that the aforesaid statements on Twitter have brought the administration of justice in disrepute and are capable of undermining the dignity and authority of the Institution of Supreme Court in general and the office of the Chief Justice of India in particular, in the eyes of public at large. We take suo motu cognizance of the aforesaid tweet also apart from the tweet quoted above and suo motu register the proceedingsReads SC order .A week before the Apex Court registered a suo motu contempt case against Bhushan on July 9, Mahek Maheshwari, an advocate based in Guna, Madhya Pradesh, had filed a petition against Bhushan and Twitter India seeking contempt action against both..The tweet in question, posted by Bhushan on June 29, stated,"CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access Justice!".The petition states that the tweet is of "serious nature", putting "a big question on the sovereign functions of the CJI". It further states,."The remarks are too inhuman forgetting that how much Hon'ble CJI and the other justices are stretching themselves to ensure justice to the citizens that they allow hearing by Video Conferencing Mode and they are not even enjoying vacations properly."Plea filed by Maheshwari before Supreme Court.This is not the first time contempt proceedings have been initiated against Prashant Bhushan.In March 2019, Bhushan had admitted in the Supreme Court to a "genuine mistake" in tweeting that the government appeared to have misled the Apex Court and had perhaps submitted fabricated minutes of the high-powered selection panel meeting for the appointment of M Nageshwara Rao as the interim chief of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)..Will you apologise unconditionally? No – Prashant Bhushan to Justice Arun Mishra in intense contempt petition hearing.Attorney General KK Venugopal had filed a contempt plea against Bhushan for his February 1 tweets regarding the same..Following the Attorney General's plea, the Central government also filed a contempt petition against Bhushan over the issue..Can Prashant Bhushan be accused of Contempt of Court?.Later, however, AG Venugopal told the Bench that he would like to withdraw his contempt plea, saying, "He (Bhushan) is prepared to make a statement before this court that he had made a mistake. In view of what is given to me in writing, I will withdraw my petition. He (Bhushan) has said that he had done a genuine mistake.".[READ ORDER]