Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, refused to apologise for two tweets in June, one of which condemned the judiciary of destroying democracy and the other criticised the current Chief Justice of India for keeping the courts shut during the Covid-19 lockdown.

On Sunday, Bhushan filed an affidavit in response to its own contempt proceedings initiated by Supreme Court over the tweets on July 22. In which he mentioned: “Such expression of opinion however outspoken, disagreeable or however unpalatable to some, cannot constitute contempt of court. This proposition has been laid down by several judgments of this court and in foreign jurisdictions such as Britain, US and Canada.”

In February, Former Supreme Court judges DY Chandrachud and Deepak Gupta gave speeches on dissent has also been cited by Bhushan. “Justice DY Chandrachud, while delivering the 15th P D Desai Memorial Lecture in the Gujarat High Court on February 15, expressed his agony at the manner in which dissent was labelled as anti-national.”

On July 22, a notice has been issued to Bhushan and directed him to respond by August 5 by A three-judge bench. The first tweet, which was reproduced in the court order, said: “When historians in the future look back at the last six years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the SC in this destruction, and more particularly the role of the last four CJIs.”

He clarified his first tweet as his ”sterling opinion, which anyone can and may disagree with” but added that “ in any healthy democracy, there needs to be free and frank discussion about the role of every institution”, In his affidavit.

The second tweet referred to the incumbent Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde. It was also cited in the order and said: “The CJI rides a Rs 50-lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] leader at Raj Bhavan, Nagpur, without wearing a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC on lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access justice!”

Bhushan regretted in his affidavit, saying Bobde was not wearing a helmet. He added he failed to notice the bike was stationary and that the CJI was not riding, but merely sitting on it. “… I agree that did not come to my notice that the bike was on a stand and, therefore, wearing a helmet was not required. I, therefore, regret that part of my tweet. However, I stand by the remaining part of what I have stated in my tweet.” He sought to explain in his affidavit that criticism of the CJI doesn’t mean criticism of the court itself.

Twitter Inc disabled the two tweets in question, after it was made a party to the case. The next hearing of the case would be on August 5.