Supreme Court on Wednesdays began contempt proceedings against Advocate Prashant Bhushan over his tweets about the judiciary. Bhushan has tweeted critical of the court and its judges on two instances. One of his tweets was against four previous Chief Justices of India accusing them of destroying democracy in India in the last six years. The other accuses sitting Chief Justice SA Bobde of riding a motorcycle – Harley Davidson without a mask and a helmet.

A Three judge – bench comprising of Justice Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari will hear the case today via video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Prashant Bhushan stated, “It is quite early to say anything. Let us wait till the Court issues notice. At present, it is mere speculation that the Court has possibly issued the notice on my CJI on Motorcycle tweet or an earlier tweet where I said about the role of past CJIs in destroying democracy without a formal emergency.”

In the same matter, the top court has also initiated contempt proceedings against The Indian arm of twitter, Twitter Communications India Private Limited.

This is the second time that the Supreme Court has initiated such contempt proceedings against activist- lawyer Mr. Bhushan. First one was in 2009, when he made controversial remarks on the sitting and former judges of the court in an interview to a magazine. The matter is still pending in courts. However, according to few sources it was last heras in 2012

Further, he has also given statements regarding the ill treatment meted out to jailed activists like Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj (accused in Bhima-Koregaon case). Mr. Varavara Rao has also been tested corona positive last week.