“Regret Error”: Prashant Bhushan After Tweet On CJI

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan has regretted an “error” in his tweet of October 21 in which he was critical of Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde being provided a special helicopter by the Madhya Pradesh government.

In October, Mr Bhushan had said the Chief Justice took the special helicopter during his visit to Kanha National Park while “an important case of disqualification of defecting MLAs of MP (Madhya Pradesh) is pending before him. Survival of MP govt depends on this case”.

Mr Bhushan on November 4, however, tweeted that he “regretted” the error in his earlier tweet.

“Elections were held yesterday to seats of defecting Cong MLAs in MP who were made ministers in the Shivraj Govt. Survival of Shivraj govt will depend on their re-election, not on decision of case in CJIs court challenging their ministership. I regret this error in my tweet below,” Mr Bhushan tweeted.

On November 4, a bench headed by the Chief Justice disposed of a plea that had raised the issue of pendency of disqualification proceedings against some Congress MLAs who had joined the BJP and were appointed as ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh.

The plea was disposed of after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for petitioner Congress MLA Vinay Saxena, said that bypolls on 28 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh have been already held on Tuesday, leaving the plea “infructuous”.

The Supreme Court on August 31 had imposed a token fine of Re 1 against Mr Bhushan as punishment in a contempt case against him. Mr Bhushan was earlier convicted for two tweets against the judiciary.