4 years, 4 months ago

Vague definition of criminal contempt

In the corridors of the SupremeCourt, a judicial humorist once mused, “What is the difference between a judge of the Supreme Court of India and God?” The answer was, “God doesn’t think he is a Justice of the Indian Supreme Court.” If the logic of the recent Supreme Court judgment where Prashant Bhushan is the alleged contemnor were to be extended to this unnamed gentleman, it is quite possible that he might be held guilty of criminal contempt. The first tweet adjudged as contemptuous reads as follows: “CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access Justice!” The second tweet reads: “When historians in the future look back at the last 6 years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the Supreme Court in this destruction, & more particularly the role of the last 4 CJIs.” The first tweet, which referred to the Chief Justice sitting on an expensive motorcycle, was not held to be contemptuous. The court notes in para 62 that “This part of the tweet could be said to be a criticism made against the CJI as an individual and not against the CJI as CJI.” Despite making this distinction, the overall impact seemed to have been taken into account when the court ruled: “The said tweet is capable of giving an impression to a layman that the CJI is enjoying his ride on a motorbike worth Rs.50 lakh belonging to a BJP leader, at a time when he has kept the Supreme Court in lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access justice.” As far as the second tweet is concerned, the court says in para 67: “The impression which the said tweet tends to give to an ordinary citizen is, that when the historians in future look back, the impression they will get is, that in the last six years the democracy has been destroyed in India without even a formal emergency and that the Supreme Court had a particular role in the said destruction and the last four Chief Justices of India had more particular role in the said destruction.” It further holds: “It is clear, that the criticism is against the entire Supreme Court and the last four CJIs. In our considered view, the said tweet undermines the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the CJI and directly affronts the majesty of law.” In the light of the court’s ruling that Prashant Bhushan’s tweets were an “attempt to shake the very foundation of constitutional democracy” which “has to be dealt with an iron hand”, it may be safe to define the offence of criminal contempt under Section 2 of the Contempt of Courts Act as anything that angers or infuriates an Indian judge just sufficiently enough for the judge to rule that it “ scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court”.