The Supreme Court, on Thursday, 10 September adjourned the 2009 contempt case against Prashant Bhushan for his comments to Tehelka magazine about corruption in the judiciary. The matter will now be heard on 12 October.
On the instructions of the top court, all files and details of proceedings will be sent to Attorney General's office so that he can assist the court.
This is different from the other suo motu contempt case against the lawyer-activist in the Supreme Court, which relates to two recent tweets. Bhushan has already been found guilty of criminal contempt in that case.
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A three-judge bench of the court, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai, and Krishna Murari, had previously decided it would examine the 2009 case for whether it is possible to make allegations of corruption against judges, and if so, what the process for making such allegations should be.
The judges had asked lawyers to present their views regarding these issues to the court on 25 August.
On the day, senior advocates Rajeev Dhavan (appearing for Bhushan) and Kapil Sibal (appearing for Tarun Tejpal/Tehelka) urged the court to refer the case to a Constitution Bench as it involved important constitutional questions relating to freedom of speech.
Justice Mishra acknowledged that the current bench would be “short of time” to hear the case, as he was demitting office soon. The matter was then adjourned, and taken up on 10 September by the new bench comprising of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna.
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