New Delhi:Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Monday refused to offer apology to the Supreme Court for his two tweets saying it's his bona fide belief he continues to hold.
Offering insincere apology will amount to contempt of my conscience and of an institution, Bhushan told the apex court SC.
An apology for the expression of his beliefs, conditional or unconditional, would be insincere, he added.
The top court granted time till August 24 to Bhushan to reconsider his defiant statement refusing to apologise for his contemptuous tweets and tender an unconditional apology.
Bhushan said he believes the Supreme Court is the last bastion of hope for the protection of fundamental rights, the watchdog institutions and indeed for constitutional democracy itself.
It has rightly been called the most powerful court in the democratic world, and often an exemplar for courts across the globe. Today in these troubling times, the hopes of the people of India vest in this Court to ensure the rule of law and the Constitution and not an untrammelled rule of the executive, he said.
I live with the realization that I have received from this institution much more than I have had the opportunity to give it. I cannot but have the highest regard for the institution of the Supreme Court, he said.
Bhushan in his two-page supplementary statement said that it is with deep regret that he read the August 20 order of this court as at the hearing the court had asked him to take 2-3 days to reconsider the statement he made in the court.
However, the order subsequently states: We have given time to the contemnor to submit an unconditional apology, if he so desires, he said.
Bhushan was held guilty of criminal contempt for his two derogatory tweets against the judiciary on August 14 and faces simple imprisonment of up to six months or with a fine of up to Rs 2,000 or with both as punishment.
We can give you time and it is better if you (Bhushan) reconsider it. Think over it. We will give you two-three days' time, the top court had told Bhushan, who held his ground by refusing to apologise for the tweets.
"I did not tweet in a fit of absence mindedness. It would be insincere and contemptuous on my part to offer an apology for the tweets that expressed what was and continues to be my bonafide belief. Therefore, I can only humbly paraphrase what the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi had said in his trial: I do not ask for mercy. I do not appeal to magnanimity. I am here, therefore, to cheerfully submit to any penalty that can lawfully be inflicted upon me for what the Court has determined to be an offence, and what appears to me to be the highest duty of a citizen, Bhushan had told the bench.
Justice Mishra said there is a lakshman rekha for everything. Why cross it. We welcome pursuing good cases in public interest but remember, it is now after conviction. And it is a serious thing. I have not convicted anyone of contempt in 24 years as a judge. This is my first such order.
At the end of the hearing, the bench said it will take two-three days time for Bhushan to think over and consider modification to his "defiant" statement refusing to apologise and "cheerfully" accepting punishment.
(With inputs from PTI)
