Attorney-General files contempt petition against Prashant Bhushan

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal has filed a contempt of court petition against advocate Prashant Bhushan for his tweets alleging that the government, through the top law officer, had misled the court about the appointment of M. Nageshwar Rao as interim CBI Director.

“The attack on the Attorney General in such a brazen, willful and malicious way would tend to shake the very foundation of the justice delivery system,” the petition said.

By alleging fabrication of minutes of the high-powered committee (HPC) meeting, Mr. Bhushan has cast aspersions on a sitting judge of the Supreme Court. This would amount to contempt of the court, Mr. Venugopal said.

On February 1, Mr. Venugopal had submitted before a Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra that the government’s appointment of Mr. Rao was on the basis of approval given by the HPC chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 9-10 for the posting of a “suitable officer” as interim CBI Director till a new Director was appointed.

Mr. Venugopal had handed over the minutes of the HPC meeting to the court for perusal.

However, advocate Prashant Bhushan, who represents the petitioner NGO Common Cause, took to Twitter later in the day alleging that the government had “misled” the court. Mr. Bhushan tweeted that he had spoken to HPC member and Opposition Leader Mallikarjun Kharge.