SC defers hearing in ’09 case against Bhushan

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred till September 10 hearing on the contempt of court proceedings against advocate Prashant Bhushan for his 2009 remarks that half of the 16 former CJIs were corrupt as his counsel told the court that the case raised a constitutional conflict between contempt of court powers and right to free speech.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari agreed with senior advocates Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Bhushan, and Kapil Sibal, for Tarun Tejpal, to postpone the hearing to a date after Justice Mishra’s September 2 retirement.
When Dhavan raised the larger issue of defining the contours of the SC’s inherent power under Article 129 of the Constitution to punish a person for committing contempt of the apex court and its impact on right to free speech, the bench said, “Because of paucity of time, let us leave it to an appropriate bench as these questions need to be extensively argued.”