[Prashant Bhushan Contempt Case On Two Tweets] AG KK Venugopal Urges Court Not To Punish Bhushan [LIVE UPDATES]
Justice Mishra: I request you. Think over. If you invite us to read all this, we will have to decide all this. We will have to decide if it is a defence or an aggravation. You might be thinking it is a defence.
Justice Mishra : Dr. Dhavan why you are entering into all this?
Dhavan : Section 13(2) gives the defence of truth.
Justice Mishra : Is this a defence or an aggravation?
Justice Gavai says that Dave had only taken us to page 40 of the affidavit and did not refer to the other parts.
Justice Gavai says that Dave only referred to the earlier part of the affidavit, which was considered in the judgment and did not rely on the other parts of the affidavit.
Dhavan submits that the reply of Bhushan was not simply taken into account.
Justice Mishra in reply says that Dave said to ignore all that (affidavit) and only argued other points.
Dhavan says " I am entitled to the copy of the complaint. Vijay Kurle (decision) says it".
Justice Mishra says if the case is taken suo moto ,the complaint is irrelevant.
Dhavan says that the copy of the complaint was not served to Bhushan though he applied for it.
Justice Mishra says that the Court proceeded on the basis of the tweets and not the complaint. You have not disputed the tweets too, Justice Mishra says.
Dhavan now refers to Section 13(2) of the Contempt of Courts Act to say that 'truth is defence' in contempt proceedings.
It is not enough for the court to say that the remarks as scurrilous and all. The Court has to state that the comments have "substantially interfered with the administration justice" : Dhavan.
As some commentator has said, how can a comment about CJI seated on a bike affect the administration of justice : Dhavan.
It is not enough that there should be some technical contempt. It must be shown that that the act of contempt must "substantially interfere with the administration of justice" : Dhavan says referring to Section 13 of the Contempt of Courts Act.