Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 12
Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Saturday moved the Supreme Court (SC) seeking right to intra-court appeal to be heard by a larger and different Bench in contempt of court cases decided by the top court, saying the absence of appeal provision violated the principles of natural justice.
Alternatively, the court should issue a direction declaring that review petitions filed against SC's conviction orders in criminal contempt cases would be heard in open court by a different Bench, Bhushan submitted in his petition. "Contempt proceedings are one in which the injured party (Supreme Court) acts as the prosecutor, the witness and the judge, thereby raising fear of inherent bias. As a judge the power of the Supreme Court to convict and sentence the accused is unlimited and arbitraryhellip; No one can be at once a suitor and a judge.
Thus, there is a need for an intra-court appeal," Bhushan submitted. The petition comes less than two weeks after the Supreme Court imposed a token fine of Re 1 on Bhushan, who was convicted for criminal contempt for his two tweets against the judiciary, saying he had attempted to "denigrate the reputation of the institution of administration of justice".
The conviction and sentence had come after Bhushan refused to apologise to the court. After the sentence was pronounced, he had announced that he would pay the fine and file a review petition.
Bhushan is facing another criminal contempt case initiated in the top court 2009 for his statement in Tehelka magazine that half the 16 former CJIs were "corrupt".
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2FB5rDV
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