Breaking: Supreme Court decides to hear 2009 contempt case against Prashant Bhushan on merits

The Supreme Court today decided to hear on merits the contempt case filed against Advocate Prashant Bhushan back in 2009 for his statements on corruption in the judiciary..The order was passed by a Bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai, and Krishna Murari..The Court said in its order,."We need to check whether statements made regarding corruption amounts to contempt of court. Thus we need to hear the matter."Supreme Court.The Court will hear the case from August 17..On August 4, the Bench reserved its orders on whether or not to accept Bhushan's statement in the contempt case..The case was filed against Bhushan after he made allegations against former Chief Justices of India SH Kapadia and KG Balakrishnan in an interview with Tehelka magazine back in 2009.During the interview, Bhushan also allegedly said that half of the preceding 16 Chief Justices of India were corrupt. As per the complaint, Bhushan also said that he had no proof of the allegations..The Supreme Court had subsequently taken suo motu notice of the issue after a complaint to this effect was filed by Senior Advocate Harish Salve.The contempt petition was held to be maintainable by a three-judge Bench on November 10, 2010, following which the case was heard on 17 occasions..The Bench noted in its August 4 order,"Explanation/apology submitted by Mr. Prashant Bhushan/ Respondent No.1 and Mr. Tarun Tejpal/Respondent No.2, have not been received so far. In case we do not accept the explanation/apology, we will hear the matter. We reserve the order.".In case we do not accept the explanation, we will hear the matter: Supreme Court reserves verdict in 2009 Prashant Bhushan contempt case.The Bench told the lawyers that it wanted to put an end to the matter to protect the dignity of the Court and its judges. Therefore, it asked asked the parties to issue statements tendering their apologies. Bhushan, however, refused to tender an apology, but agreed to issue a statement instead. His statement reads,."In my interview to Tehelka in 2009 I have used the word corruption in a wide sense meaning lack of propriety. I did not mean only financial corruption or deriving any pecuniary advantage. If what I have said caused hurt to any of them or to their families in any way, I regret the same. I unreservedly state that I support the institution of the judiciary and especially the Supreme Court of which I am a part, and had no intention to lower the prestige of the judiciary in which I have complete faith. I regret if my interview was misunderstood as doing so, that is, lower the reputation of the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, which could never have been my intention at all."Prashant Bhushan's statement in the 2009 contempt case.Justice Mishra had indicated that he may pass an order holding that any statement of corruption in the judiciary would amount to contempt per se.However, Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan stated that such a finding cannot and should not be rendered without hearing the parties..Read Order: