A forum for Catholic nuns, brothers and priests practicing as lawyers says time has come for the self-examination of the Supreme Court of India. “It is the right time for the Apex Court for its self-exa-mination,” the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests (NLFRP) stated on August 22 after observing that certain moves of the apex court have evoked bar associations across India to organize protests and demonstrations.
The forum says it was disturbed by the court’s full bench on August 20 holding Prashant Bhushan, a noted lawyer, guilty of criminal contempt of court for two tweets.
Bhushan was drawn into the case for the tweets dated on July 27 and 29 on Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and the Supreme Court. One tweet was about a photograph of Justice Bobde astride a bike and another on how posterity would perceive the role played by the apex court in the past six years.
On August 14, the apex court found the tweets offensive and scandalizing the court. Bhushan said the tweets embodied his bona fide belief and that it would be contemptuous on his part to apologize for something he believes in. He also said he would cheerfully submit to whatever punishment the court imposed on him.
The forum for Catholic religious and priests termed as “unfortunate” that the court finding the tweets undermining “the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the Chief Justice of India and directly affronts the majesty of law.”
The forum has declared its solidarity to Bhushan as it finds him not just an individual but the “voice of millions of people and an icon of Right to Expression of our times.”