Instead Of Chilling Discussion On State Of Judiciary, Contempt Judgment Sharpened The Debate : Prashant Bhushan

Speaking at a webinar organized by the Kerala Chapter of Indian Association of Lawyers (IAL), advocate Prashant Bhushan said that the recent contempt case against him was an attempt by the Court to silence those who wished to express themselves regarding the functioning of the judiciary. However, he added, public outcry has ensured that the Top Court's decision in finding him guilty of contempt had the polar opposite effect. "The intention of court in punishing me, with an archaic law, was to silence me & try to silence others like me who wish to freely express themselves regarding the functioning of judiciary. However, due to public outcry, exactly the opposite seems to have happened… …Instead of chilling the discussion regarding the state of judiciary & role of Supreme Court, the judgment sharpened the debate & brought increased focus on what has happened in our democracy over last 6 years", said Bhushan. At the outset, while delivering the keynote address on the topic "Challenges Before Our Constitutional Democracy", Bhushan spoke about the Supreme Court's recent verdict holding him guilty of contempt of court with regard to two of his tweets. Binoy Viswam, Rajya Sabha MP belonging to the Communist Party of India(CPI), presiding over the session, called Bhushan a "brave hero of the Indian judicial system" and affirmed that the Kerala bar stood with him. Stating that the tweet to be taken note of was the one regarding the situation of the Indian democracy over the last 6 years and the role played by the last 4 CJIs in that time, Bhushan said. "I said when historians look back, they will see that democracy has been largely destroyed in the last 6 years and they'll note the role of the last 4 CJIs in that. It represented my bona fide views and beliefs of what's happened in the last 6 years & what the role of the Supreme Court & Chief Justices had been. Every citizen in a democracy should be free to express those views without threat of being prosecuted." Pointing out recent articles assessing the judicial legacy of Justice Arun Mishra, who demitted office on September 2, Bhushan sought to explain how the contempt case had the opposite effect. He concluded that instead of silencing voices of others like him, the matter ended up bringing an increased focus on the state of the democracy as well as stiffening people's resolve to speak out freely. Justice Arun Mishra's Controversial Tenure Leaves Questions On Public Confidence In Judiciary Moving on to the role of the Supreme Court in protecting constitutional rights and values, Bhushan elaborated as follows- "When we created the constitution, the public was supposed to be masters and public servants were to serve the people. Constitution gave people fundamental rights. The right to life & liberty was expansively interpreted by Supreme Court… The main job of SC was to protect fundamental rights & ensure that the legislature & executive remain within bounds of power given to them by the constitution, and not merely to act as an appellate court. It was Supreme Court's role to strike down laws & executive action which went against the constitution. The Supreme Court was given the role to order the executive to perform their constitutional duty. These are important roles." Having stated this, Bhushan said that every institution created to protect democracy was being assaulted. He spoke in detail about institutions such as the Election Commission and CAG being compromised for the first time. He added that there was a whole scale assault on fundamental rights of citizens and the most of the mainstream media was controlled by the Government. "What we are seeing today even without the imposition of a formal emergency is far worse than what had ever happened even during emergency. Because today we find all our fundamental rights are under assault by the state. Right to equality is repeatedly assaulted…Laws are made and the police is coerced to ensure minorities, Muslims & Dalits don't get equality before the law; to ensure India becomes a Hindu Rashtra where Hindus and some other religions get preference while Muslims are reduced to 2nd class citizens. There's an assault on all Article 19 rights. Saying anything against the Government leads to being beaten up on streets with police looking on as helpless bystanders, sometimes participating in the meeting. There's also a Lynch mob, not only on streets but also on social media…Large parts of mainstream media are completely under the power of the government. We see sedition law being used against those who speak against them. Now there's also the use of contempt law against people like me." Speaking about activists and protests, Bhushan said the Right to life and liberty is also being 'assaulted' wherein protests are being curbed by the use of Draconian laws like UAPA used to arrest, harass, intimidate & victimize...

Instead Of Chilling Discussion On State Of Judiciary, Contempt Judgment Sharpened The Debate : Prashant Bhushan

Nilashish Chaudhary

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