When can someone accuse a judge of corruption? How should the judiciary react? The Supreme Court has decided to hear arguments on laying down procedures to be adopted in such instances of public allegations against the judiciary. The conviction of advocate Prashant Bhushan over his tweets on some Chief Justices of India has brought back to the public imagination the thin line between valid criticism and contempt of court. Contempt of court has always been a contentious issue, as witnessed by the long list of legal and civil society luminaries who have said that Mr. Bhushan's tweets were bona fide criticism. Advocate Gautam S. Raman, in his article on today's OpEd page, tackles the questions of what is contempt and what is bona fide criticism. His argument that it is decided on the facts of each case indicates why contempt will be an issue that will keep coming up before the Indian judiciary, and why the Supreme Court deciding to set some of the ground rules on it is a development of paramount importance. |
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