Can a lawyer criticise a judge in a pending case? SC to examine

New Delhi, Feb 07: The Supreme Court while issuing contempt notices to Prashant Bhushan said that it would examine if lawyers can criticise the judge hearing a pending case.

The court made the observation while issuing a contempt notice to Bhushan over his tweets questioning the appointment of Nageshwar Rao as the interim CBI director.

Attorney General K K Venugopal had on Monday filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan for allegedly scandalising the court with his recent tweets on the appointment of former interim chief of CBI M Nageswara Rao.

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

Venugopal, in his petition, said Bhushan 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.

During the February 1 hearing, Venugopal had in a sealed cover placed before the bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, the minutes of the meeting of the Selection Committee which was held last month for appointing the new CBI chief.

Venugopal had informed the bench that the Centre had taken the permission of the Committee to appoint Rao as an interim CBI Director.