By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday gave another opportunity to senior counsel Prashant Bhushan to tender an apology to Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia in a contempt of court case.
Bhushan attracted the contempt of court proceedings for alleging that the chief justice committed an act of impropriety by being a part of a bench that decided a matter relating to Sterlite Industries where he held equity shares. Bhushan made the statement to a newsmagazine.
The apex court bench of Justice Altmas Kabir, Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice H.L. Dattu made the offer after senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Bhushan, said the matter should be allowed to rest where it was as it was doing no good to anyone.
“It will not serve any public purpose. Let it lie where it is. Let us not go beyond it,” Jethmalani told the court.
He added: “Chief Justice Kapadia was a role model of integrity.”
At this, the court said it had earlier made a similar offer to Bhushan but he turned it down.
Jethmalani said Bhushan did not attract the charge of contempt of court as whatever he said was not intended to bring down the dignity of the court.
The attempt was to draw the attention to the sorry state of affairs in the judiciary which, if not checked in time, would greatly harm the institution, he said.
“We must not let the dust to be put under the rug and allow the cancer to grow,” Jethmalani said.
In another development, 25 “concerned citizens”, including transparency law activist Arvind Kejriwal, moved the apex court impleading themselves in the case.
They said they were constrained by the initiation of the contempt of the court proceedings against Bhushan.
The petitioners said they reiterate whatever Bhushan said about “corruption and other misconduct in the judiciary”.
When senior counsel Vikas Singh appearing for them asked the court to issue notice on their petition, the court said it would look into it at a later stage.