SC Judge offers recuse from hearing Adv. Bhushan's plea

New Delhi: While hearing the plea filed by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, who sought the right of appeal against convictions in an original criminal contempt case to be heard by a larger-different bench, Supreme Court judge Justice U U Lalit offered to recuse from hearing, PTI reported.

Justice Lalit, whose bench comprised Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha, told the parties of the hearing that he was the amicus curiae in one of the cases relating to Bhusan. He said he was amicus curiae in the Tehelka case for 16 years.

Justice Lalit asked whether he should go ahead with hearing the matter or not. He asked Bhushan's counsel to file an affidavit stating that Bhushan has no objection if he hears the case.

When Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan told the bench to go ahead, Justice Lalit said, "Just file the affidavit, and it would become part of the record."

Further hearing on the matter has been posted for May 17, 2022.

In 2020, Advocate Prashant Bhusan was fined rupee one after being convicted for his contemptuous tweets against the Indian judiciary in August 2020. He had moved Supreme Court seeking the right of appeal against convictions in original criminal contempt cases. His plea sought the declaration that "a person convicted for criminal contempt by this court, including the petitioner herein, would have a right to an intra-court appeal to be heard by a larger and different bench".

Bhushan's plea suggested procedural changes to reduce the chances of "arbitrary, vengeful and high-handed decisions" in criminal contempt cases. He said that in such cases, the top court is the aggrieved party, the "prosecutor, the witness, and the judge", and hence they raise fear of inherent bias.