SC notice to Bhushan, Twitter in suo motu contempt case

New Delhi, July 22: The Supreme Court has issued notice Prashant Bhushan on the alleged contemptuous remarks made by him on Twitter.

The court also asked the Attorney General to assist in the case. During the hearing, senior advocate, Sajjan Poovayya appearing for Twitter Inc, California, US told the SC that he will advise his client to delete the offensive tweet. The court then asked Bhushan and Twitter to reply by August 5, when the matter would be heard again.

Twitter told the SC to direct disabling of Bhushan's tweets, alleged to be derogatory against five Chief Justices of India and the Supreme Court. Poovayya also told the court that Twitter cannot delete the tweets without the court's directions.

Bhushan has been raising issues pertaining to judiciary and recently he was very critical and vocal of the way in which the top court handled the matters related to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also made statements relating to the treatment meted out to jailed activists like Varavara Rao and Sudha Bharadwaj who are accused in Bhima-Koregaon case.

As of now, it is not clear as to which tweets of Bhushan have been prime facie construed as contemptuous by the Supreme Court.