Things haven’t been going too well for PIL activist Prashant Bhushan lately. Only yesterday, the government had stated in Court that the documents related to the Rafale deal which were published by The Hindu and used by Bhushan in his arguments were stolen and it is considering taking action on the matter.
Today, Bhushan was forced to admit in the Court that he had committed a “genuine mistake” by claiming that the Central government had placed fabricated documents in SC on the appointment of interim CBI director.
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Bhushan had filed an application seeking the recusal of Justice Arun Mishra from hearing the contempt petition filed against him by K.K. Venugopal. The application was dismissed by the Court. “Your application is rejected. I’m not recusing,” Justice Mishra said while rejecting Prashant Bhushan’s appeal.
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The senior advocate, who has earned himself quite a bit of notoriety for filing frivolous PILs, refused to tender an unconditional apology for seeking Justice Mishra’s recusal. The bench said that it would consider whether a person can criticize the Court in a sub-judice matter to influence public opinion.
In his contempt petition, Attorney general KK Venugopal had accused Bhushan of exercising vindictiveness and recklessness while tweeting about the appointment of interim CBI director M Nageshwar Rao. Venugopal had also contended that without applying to the court for the minutes of the meeting, Bhushan went ahead and chose to level serious allegations against the Attorney General for India and the Government of India and questioned the integrity of the AG.