NEW DELHI: One of India's most prominent lawyers faces a Monday deadline to apologise to the Supreme Court or risk jail in a case testing the judiciary's openness to criticism and sparking a debate on freedom of speech in the world's largest democracy.
Prashant Bhushan, 63, was found guilty of criminal contempt for attempting "to scandalize the entire institution" with Twitter posts depicting the chief justice on a motorcycle while the court's work was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and criticising previous top judges.
The top court on Thursday ordered Bhushan, who has championed public interest litigation, to issue an "unconditional apology" by Monday. He faces up to six months in jail or a fine of 2,000 rupees ($27) or both. "Any apology would be insincere," Bhushan told Reuters, declining to comment further as the matter is before the court.
He told the court in a statement on Thursday that he would "cheerfully submit to any penalty" over the two June tweets, which he said "represented my bonafide beliefs, the expression of which must be permissible in any democracy."
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