Earlier, while issuing notice and taking up the matter suo motu, the top court had noted that the tweets by Bhushan brought “disrepute” to the “administration of justice.”
After a contempt of court notice to Advocate Prashant Bhushan for his tweets critiquing the judiciary was issued by the bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice Arun Mishra, Twitter has withheld the two tweets by the lawyer for which the contempt notices were sent to Bhushan and Twitter India.
The top court took note of Bhushan’s tweets as “bringing disrepute to the administration of justice.”
Prashant Bhushan, senior lawyer, and activist had tweeted on 29 June.
“CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access Justice!”
In another tweet on 27 June, Bhushan wrote, “When historians in future look back at the last 6 years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the Supreme Court in this destruction, & more particularly the role of the last 4 CJIs.”
The controversial tweets by Bhushan now remain unavailable for viewing.
Twitter has "withheld" the Tweets of Prashant Bhushan that had criticized the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India.
The two Tweets are no longer visible. @pbhushan1 @Twitter @TwitterIndia https://t.co/r7efKdE9jl
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) July 25, 2020
Usually, according to Twitter’s policy and guidelines, a tweet is withheld after a court order or a legal action. In this case, Twitter Inc. and Bhushan have been served with notice of contempt to explain if at all the tweets were contemptuous in nature.
Senior Advocate Poovayya, representing Twitter, elaborated that “withholding tweets” does not mean “deletion of tweets.”
Earlier, while issuing notice and taking up the matter suo motu, the top court had noted that the tweets by Bhushan brought “disrepute” to the “administration of justice.”
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