Imprisonment Or Fine? SC To Decide Activist-Lawyer Prashant Bhushan's Quantum of Punishment Today

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari will pronounce the degree of punishment in its verdict against Bhushan.Bhushan is likely to face simple imprisonment of up to six months or with a fine of up to Rs 2,000 or with both as punishment under Contempt of Court Act.

(File Photo/ Getty)

The limelight in the political landscape will be centered around the Supreme Court on Monday as the apex court is expected to pronounce its verdict on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to Prashant Bhushan, who has been held guilty of contempt for his tweets against the judiciary and Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari will pronounce the degree of punishment in its verdict against lawyer-turned Bhushan, who is likely to face simple imprisonment of up to six months or with a fine of up to Rs 2,000 or with both as punishment under Contempt of Court Act. On August 14, Prashant Bhushan was held guilty by the Supreme Court on account of criminal contempt for his derogatory tweets against the judicial system of the nation. A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had made a critical observation on his tweets and stated that for  how long the system would suffer this. Making a further note of Bhushan's contempt of court, the SC bench stated that judges are condemned and their families are humiliated. “They cannot even speak”, said the 3-judge bench. On August 25, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing Bhushan, had requested the top court to show "judicial statesmanship" and not make Bhushan a "martyr" by punishing him for contempt over his tweets. Dhavan had said that reprimanding Bhushan like "don't do it again" will not be correct and instead a statesman-like message should be there like "Mr Bhushan though we disagree with many things, but from next time you should be more responsible". The bench had told Venugopal that mistakes were committed by all but they needed to be accepted, but here Bhushan was not willing to accept that.