After AG KK Venugopal, now Central government also files contempt petition against Prashant Bhushan

Close on the heels of Attorney General KK Venugopal filing a contempt petition against advocate Prashant Bhushan, the Central government has also filed a similar petition..The contempt petition by the Central government has taken objection to the tweets put out by Prashant Bhushan which it alleges, amounted to deliberately making false statements in a pending case “to obstruct justice and to interfere with the course of a pending judicial proceeding”..The controversy pertains to the case relating to appointment of M Nageshwar Rao as interim Director of CBI..One of the grounds on which the challenge to the appointment of Rao was made was that it was done without the consent of the High-Powered Committee comprising Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and Leader of Opposition..However, when the case was heard on February 1 last week, Attorney General KK Venugopal had submitted that the appointment of Rao was indeed approved by the High-powered committee..After the hearing, advocate Prashant Bhushan who was appearing for the petitioner in the matter tweeted that he spoke to Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, who denied any discussion having taken place in the High-powered committee regarding appointment of Rao. Thus, the government appeared to have misled the court, Bhushan stated in his tweet..The Attorney general filed a contempt petition in his personal capacity yesterday wherein he extracted the minutes of the meeting of High-Powered Committee containing the signature of Mallikarjun Kharge..The relevant portion of the meeting relied upon by the AG reads as follows:.“The Central government may post a suitable officer to look after the duties of Director, CBI till the appointment of a new Director CBI.”.Since, the minutes were signed by all three members, all the three were aware of the decision taken at meeting. Hence, it was Venugopal’s contention the confirmation/ statement attributed to Kharge by Bhushan cannot have been made by Kharge for the simple reason that Kharge himself signed the minutes of the meeting..The Central government in its contempt petition refers to the above petition filed by AG KK Venugopal and has submitted that the contents of the petition by Venugopal may be read as an integral part of the Centre’s petition..It alleges that Bhushan’s statements are intended and calculated to obstruct justice and interfere with the course of judicial proceeding..“Such an act by a counsel of making false and irresponsible allegations on a public platform rather than raising his grievances, if any, before this Hon’ble Court, is grossly contumacious and warrants punishment…” .The petition states that since the Attorney General has himself filed a contempt petition against Bhushan on the same subject matter, the question of seeking AG’s consent for filing the present petition will not arise..Read the petition below..Image taken from here.