Centre moves SC seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan

The Centre has moved the Supreme Court seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan for his tweets alleging that they amounted to making false statement in a pending case on appointment of M Nageswara Rao as interim CBI Director.

The plea has been filed days after Attorney General K K Venugopal had filed a similar contempt petition against Bhushan for his alleged tweets.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra is scheduled to hear on Wednesday the plea filed by NGO Common Cause challenging appointment of Rao as interim chief of the probe agency.

Bhushan, in his tweets, had reportedly alleged that the Centre, represented by Venugopal had misled the apex court on the issue of Rao's appointment.

Venugopal, in his contempt plea, had referred to the extracts of the minutes of the meeting of the high powered selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, Justice A K Sikri and leader of largest opposition party Mallikarjun Kharge.

The Centre, in the fresh plea, has also referred to the contends of Venugopal's petition and submitted that they be also read as part fo its plea.

Venugopal on Monday filed the contempt petition against Bhushan for allegedly scandalising the court with his recent tweets on the appointment of former interim chief.

The contempt petition referred to the February 1 tweets by Bhushan in which he had allegedly said that the government appeared to have misled the apex court and perhaps submitted fabricated minutes of meeting of the high-powered Selection Committee headed by the Prime Minister.

Venugopal had said in his plea that through his tweets, Bhushan appeared to have deliberately intended to cast aspersions on the "integrity and honesty" of the Attorney General who had placed the minutes of the meeting before the apex court during the February 1 hearing.

On February 1, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra was hearing a petition filed by NGO Common Cause challenging the Centre's decision to appoint Rao, an IPS officer, as the interim CBI director. Venugopal has said in his petition that Bhushan's tweets "scandalise or tend to scandalise and lower or tend to lower the authority of this court".

He said in his plea that during the hearing on February 1, he had handed over to the bench the minutes of meeting of the high-powered committee held on January 9 and January 10. "A mere reading of the said minutes would establish that the high powered committee, at the said meeting, had taken a decision to permit the Central government to post a suitable officer to look after the duties of the Director CBI till the appointment of new Director.

The petition had said that signature of all the three members of the committee -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apex court judge Justice A K Sikri (as a nominee of CJI) and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge -- was affixed in the decision taken by the panel.

Venugopal had said Bhushan, in one of his tweets on February 1, had said, "I have just confirmed personally from the leader of opposition Mr Kharge that no discussion or decision in HPC meet was taken re-appointment of Nageswara Rao as interim Director of CBI. The govt appears to have misled the court and perhaps submitted fabricated minutes of the HPC meeting."