Helicopter Ride: Lawyer seeks Attorney General consent for initiating contempt against Prashant Bhushan for tweet on CJI SA Bobde's Kanha visit

A lawyer has written a letter to Attorney General KK Venugopal seeking his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Advocate Prashant Bhushan for tweet connecting "the personal life of CJI SA Bobde with a pending case before him.".The letter by Supreme Court Advocate Sunil Singh has sought contempt proceedings against Bhushan for his tweets on CJI's recent visit to Kanha national park. .The CJI avails a special chopper provided by the MP Govt (authorised by the CM) for a visit to Kanha National Park and then to his home in Nagpur, while an important case of disqualification of defecting MLAs of MP is pending before him. Survival of MP government depends on this case”excerpt of tweet dated 21-10-2020 by Prashant Bhushan.The letter states that the tweet was published in several newspapers and that the tweet "scandalises the Supreme Court, prejudices and interferes with the due course of judicial proceedings and administration of justice.".In common law jurisdictions, perhaps the most significant role of contempt of court law is the application of the sub judice rule: no one should interfere with legal proceedings which are pending. In practice, this rule is usually used to prohibit publication of matters which are likely to prejudice the right of a fair trial when legal proceedings are pending, or in a more colloquial sense, to prevent “trial by media”.Reads the letter.The lawyer states that it is in public interest that contempt proceedings are initiated against Bhushan..The letter seeks consent to initiate contempt proceedings under Section 15 of Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 read with Rule 3(c) of The Rules To Regulate Proceedings For Contempt of Supreme Court 1975..[Breaking] Supreme Court lets Prashant Bhushan off in contempt case with fine of Rs. 1 .It was in August this year that Supreme Court while convicting Bhushan of contempt had stated that his tweet on a photograph of CJI Bobde astride a bike and another on the court’s role in the past six years had scandalised the Supreme Court as an institution..While letting off Bhushan with a one rupee fine, the bench led by Justice Arun Mishra had said when a “scheme” was on to damage public confidence in the judiciary, those interested in fearless justice should stand firmly. The court could not ignore the disrespect and disaffection created by the “scurrilous” tweets.