Prashant Bhushan refuses to apologize after the SC gives him two days to reconsider his remarks.

Prashant Bhushan said that the tweets criticizing the CJI and judiciary were his bona fide belief; Supreme Court promised him to be lenient in his contempt trial if he reconsidered his statements.

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on Thursday expressed that he was pained at being grossly misunderstood by the b, over his tweet against the CJI and judiciary. Bhushan said that the tweets, which were held contemptuous by the top court, were not done in absence mindedness, and that he wouldn’t apologize for them as they were as per his bona fide belief. A 3-judge bench which was headed by Justice Arun Mishra declared Prashant Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt on August 14. On Thursday, the apex court gave Bhushan two days to reconsider his defiant statement and promised a lenient judgment should Bhushan apologize.

Prashant Bhushan urges the need for open criticism in his statement before the Supreme Court:

Bhushan retorted and said,” I did not tweet in a fit of absence mindedness. It would be insincere and contemptuous on my part to offer an apology for the tweets that expressed what was and continues to be my bona fide belief. Therefore, I can only humbly paraphrase what the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi had said in his trial: I do not ask for mercy, I do not appeal to magnanimity. I am shocked that the court holds me guilty of malicious, scurrilous, calculated attacks on the institution of administration of justice. I am dismayed that the Court has arrived at this conclusion without providing any evidence of my motives to launch such an attack.” Bhushan further stated that in a democracy for the healthy functioning of any institution public scrutiny is necessary. Bhushan said that to safeguard the constitutional order, open criticism must be desirable of any institution.