Advocate Prashant Bhushan declines to tender apology

Aug 24, 2020
PRASHANT BHUSHAN LAW INSIDER INPRASHANT BHUSHAN LAW INSIDER IN

By LI Network-

Advocate Prashant Bhushan Monday reiterated his two tweets for which he was found guilty of contempt of court and declined the offer of the Supreme Court to express an unconditional apology.
Bhushan, in an affidavit filed today, said his tweets represented the bonafide belief he continues to hold. Public expression of these beliefs was he believed, in line with his higher obligations as a citizen and a loyal officer of the court.
He, thus, said an apology for expression of these beliefs, conditional or unconditional, would be “insincere”.
“If I retract a statement before this court that I otherwise believe to be true or offer an insincere apology, that in my eyes would amount to contempt of my conscience and of an institution that I hold in highest esteem”, says #PrashantBhushan in his affidavit before SC

“An apology cannot be a mere incantation and any apology has to, as the court has itself put it, be sincerely made. This is especially so when I have made the statements bonafide and pleaded truths with full details, which have not been dealt with by the Court,” Prashant Bhushan.

Bhushan states he has never stood on ceremony when it comes to offering an apology for any mistake or wrongdoing on his part.
“It has been a privilege for me to have served this institution and bring several important public interest causes before it. I live with the realization that I have received from this institution much more than I have had the opportunity to give it. I cannot but have the highest regard for the institution of the Supreme Court”, Bhushan said.
Bhushan stated that he believed the Supreme Court was the last bastion of hope for the protection of fundamental rights, the watchdog institutions and indeed for constitutional democracy itself.
It has rightly been called, Bhushan said, the most powerful court in the democratic world, and often an exemplar for courts across the globe.
“Today in these troubling times, the hopes of the people of India vest in this Court to ensure the rule of law and the Constitution and not an untrammeled rule of the executive”, Bhushan added.
As an officer of the Court, Bhushan said, he expressed himself in good faith, not to malign the Supreme Court or any particular Chief Justice, but to offer constructive criticism so that the court could arrest any drift away from its long-standing role as a guardian of the Constitution and custodian of peoples’ rights

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