Lawyer Prashant Bhushan deposited the Re 1 fine imposed on him by the Supreme Court on Monday, but said this does not mean that he is accepting the court’s ruling.
Bhushan spoke to mediators outside the Supreme Court and said he will file a petition for review against the higher court ruling today.
“I go to the registry of the Supreme Court to deposit Re 1 fine that they imposed on me in connection with the case of contempt. Just because you are depositing the fine does not mean that you are accepting the sentence. Today I will file a petition for review against you, ”he said.
He had filed a new petition on Saturday, seeking the right of appeal against the original criminal contempt cases.
Bhushan has demanded that his appeal be heard by a larger and different court than the Supreme Court.
In the guilty plea filed through lawyer Kamini Jaiswal, Bhushan suggested procedural changes to reduce the chances of “arbitrary, retaliatory and overbearing decisions” in criminal contempt cases, saying that in such cases the higher court is the aggrieved party, the “prosecutor, witness, and judge” and thus raise fears of inherent bias.
“This would act as a vital safeguard against wrongful conviction and would actually allow the provision of the truth as a defense,” Bhushan said in his guilty plea.
The Supreme Court recently found Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt for his tweets criticizing the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. On August 31, the court had imposed a symbolic fine of Re 1 as punishment.
Bhushan was asked to deposit the amount in the Supreme Court registry before September 15, otherwise he would have to spend three months in jail and be barred from practicing law for three years.
Another contempt case against Bhushan, initiated by the high court in 2009 over his comments that some former Indian chief judges were corrupt, is also pending before the high court.
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