New Delhi: A statement in solidarity with Prashant Bhushan, which was released a few days ago with 131 signatories, has been subsequently endorsed by seven more retired Supreme Court judges and another retired high court judge.The most recent signatories to endorse the statement, which condemns the contempt proceedings initiated against Bhushan by the Supreme Court, include former SC Justices Ruma Pal, G. S. Singhvi, Asok K. Ganguly, Gopala Gowda, Aftab Alam, Jasti Chelameswar and Vikramjit Sen. Justice Anjana Prakash, a former judge of the Patna high court, also signed the statement.The signatories have said that in the interest of justice and fairness and to “maintain the dignity of the Supreme Court”, the top court must reconsider the decision to initiate suo motu contempt proceedings against Bhushan.The full statement and list of signatories has been published below.§Statement in solidarity with Mr. Prashant Bhushan on the initiation of Criminal Contempt Proceedings against himWe the undersigned citizens of the country, express our concern with the initiation of contempt proceedings against human right activist and advocate, Mr. Prashant Bhushan, by the Supreme Court of India, in respect of two of his tweets. Mr. Bhushan has been a relentless crusader for the rights of the weakest sections of our society and has spent his career in pro bono legal service to those who do not have ready access to justice. He has fought cases at the Apex Court on issues ranging from environmental protection, human rights, civil liberties, corruption in high places and has been an outspoken champion for judicial accountability and reforms, especially in the higher judiciary.In the past few years, serious questions have been raised about the reluctance of the Supreme Court to play its constitutionally mandated role as a check on governmental excesses and violations of fundamental rights of people by the state. These questions have been raised by all sections of society- media, academics, civil society organisations, members of the legal fraternity and even by sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court itself. Most recently, the Supreme Court’s reluctance to intervene in a timely manner to avert the migrant crisis during the lockdown came under intense public scrutiny. Concerns have also been raised regarding the decision of the court to not restart physical hearings, even in a limited manner, despite passage of five months since the onset of the COVID pandemic.We urge the Hon’ble judges of the Supreme Court to take note of these concerns and engage with the public in an open and transparent manner. The initiation of contempt proceedings against Mr. Bhushan who had articulated some of these concerns in his tweets, appears to be an attempt at stifling such criticism, not just by Prashant Bhushan but by all stakeholders in the Indian democratic and constitutional setup. We believe the institution must address these genuine concerns.An institution as important as the Supreme Court of a country must be open to public discussion without the fear of retribution or action of criminal contempt. Indeed, criminal contempt as an offence has been circumscribed and made redundant in most functioning democracies, such as the USA and the UK. In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court judgement in New York Times v. L.B. Sullivan 11 L’ed (2nd) 686, with respect to contempt of court and the freedom of speech and expression it was held: “Injury to official reputation affords no more warrant for repressing speech that would otherwise be free than does factual error. Where judicial officers are involved, this Court has held that concern for the dignity and reputation of the courts does not justify the punishment as criminal contempt of criticism of the judge or his decision. This is true even though the utterance contains “half-truth” and misinformation”.Even in India, the principle that criticism of the judiciary should not be stifled by the indiscriminate use of the power of contempt has been recognized by the Supreme Court as well as by academics and advocates of repute, such as the late Senior Advocate Shri Vinod A. Bobde who had stated [“Scandals and Scandalising”, (2003) 8 SCC Jour 32], “We cannot countenance a situation where citizens live in fear of the Court’s arbitrary power to punish for contempt for words of criticism on the conduct of judges, in or out of court.”Therefore in the interest of justice and fairness and to maintain the dignity of the Supreme Court of India, we urge the Court to reconsider its decision to initiate suo-moto contempt proceedings against Mr. Prashant Bhushan and to withdraw the same at the earliest.Endorsed by:Justice Madan B. Lokur, Former judge of the Supreme Court of IndiaJustice AP Shah, Former Chief Justice of the Delhi High CourtA. Selvaraj, IRS (Retd.), Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoIAakar PatelAchin Vanaik, writer and social activist, former professor at the University of DelhiAdmiral Ramdas, Former Chief of Naval StaffAjit Ranade, economistAlok Perti, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoIAloke B. Lal, IPS (Retd.), Former Director General (Prosecution), Govt. of UttarakhandAmit Bhaduri, former Professor Emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityAmit Singh Chadha, Senior advocateAmitabha Pande, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoIAnand Grover, Senior advocateAnjali Bhardwaj, Social activistAnnie Namala, Social activistAnnie Raja, NFIWArdhendu Sen, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West BengalAruna Roy, Social activistArundhati Dhuru, NAPMArundhati Roy, AuthorAshok Khosla, environmentalistAshok Kumar Sharma, IFoS (Retd.), Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of GujaratAshok Kumar Sharma, IFS (Retd.), Former Ambassador to Finland and EstoniaBezwada Wilson, Safai Karamchari AndolanBobby Ramakant, Socialist Party (India)Brinda Karat, CPI(M)C. U. Singh, senior advocateChandrashekhar Balakrishnan, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Coal, GoID. Raja, General Secretary CPIDeb Mukharji, IFS (Retd.), Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to NepalDeepak Nayyar, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New DelhiDevika Singh, Social ActivistDipa Sinha, Right to Food CampaignDr Dharamvira Gandhi,, Punjab Manch and former Lok Sabha member from PatialaEAS Sarma, Former Secretary to GOIEnakshi Ganguly, Co- Founder and Advisor, HAQ Centre for Child RightsFabian K.PFr. Cedric Prakash SJ, human rights activistG. Balachandhran, IAS (Retd.), Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West BengalG.G. Parikh, Freedom FighterGanesh Devy, National President, Rashtra Seva DalGopal Sankaranarayanan, Senior advocateGopalan Balagopal, IAS (Retd.), Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West BengalHarsh Mander, social activstHenri Tiphagne, Executive Director, People’s Watch and National Working Secretary, Human Rights Defenders’ Alert – India ( HRDA)Hindal Tyabji, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & KashmirIndira Jaising, senior advocateJagdeep Chhokar, former Professor, Indian Institute of Management, AhmedabadJaved Anand, Journalist and civil rights activistJayati Ghosh, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityJean Dreze, EconomistJulio Ribeiro, IPS (Retd.), Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to RomaniaK. John Koshy, IAS (Retd.), Former State Chief Information Commissioner, West BengalK. Saleem Ali, IPS (Retd.), Former Special Director, CBI, GoIKalyani Chaudhuri, IAS (Retd.), Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West BengalKamal Jaswal, Former Secretary to Govt of India, Department of Information TechnologyKamayani Swami, NAPM, BiharKamla Bhasin, Social ActivistKavita Krishnan, AIPWAKavitha Kuruganti, social activistLalita Ramdas, Peace, Human Rights anti-nuclear ActivistLubna Sarwath, Socialist Party (India)M.G. Devasahayam, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Govt. of HaryanaM.Y. Rao, IAS (Retd.)Madhu Bhaduri, IFS (Retd.), Former Ambassador to PortugalMahadev Vidrohi, President, Sarva Seva SanghManoj Mitta, Author & JournalistMartin Macwan, Dalit human rights activistMedha Patkar, Social activistMeena Gupta, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoIMeera Sanghamitra, Member, National Convening Committee, NAPMMihir Desai, Senior advocateMrinal Pande, Journalist and authorN. Ram, former Editor-in-Chief, The HinduN.C. Saxena, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoINagalsamy, IA&AS (Retd.), Former Principal Accountant General, Tamil Nadu & KeralaNajeeb Jung, IAS (Retd.), Former Lieutenant Governor, DelhiNavrekha Sharma, IFS (Retd.), Former Ambassador to IndonesiaNeeraj Jain, Lokayat, Associate Editor, JanataNikhil Dey, Social activistNoor Mohammad, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, GoIP. Sainath, Journalist and authorP.K. Lahiri, IAS (Retd.), Former Executive Director, Asian Development BankP.R. Dasgupta, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoIPamela Philipose, JournalistParanjoy Guha Thakurta, Author & journalistPaul Divakar, National Campaign on Dalit Human RightsPrabhat Patnaik, Emeritus professor, Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityPrabir PurkayasthaPradeep K. Deb, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoIPrakash Singh, former Police Chief, DG BSF,DGP UP & DGP AssamPranab S. Mukhopadhyay, IAS (Retd.), Former Director, Institute of Port Management, GoIProf. Alok Rai, AllahabadProf. Manoj Kumar Jha, Member of Parliament, Rajya SabhaR. Poornalingam, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, GoIRahul Khullar, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of IndiaRajeev Bhargava, Professor, CSDS, DelhiRajmohan Gandhi, Historian and ProfessorRajni Bakshi, Journalist and authorRaju Sharma, IAS (Retd.), Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of UPRamachandra Guha, Historian and writerRavi Chopra, People’s Science InstituteRavi Vira Gupta, IAS (Retd.), Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of IndiaReetika Khera, economistS.R. Hiremath, Founder President, Samaj Parivartana Samudaya (SPS), DharwadSandeep Pandey, Socialist Party (India)Sanjay BhasinSanjay Hegde, Senior advocateSatish Deshpande, Professor of Sociology, Delhi UniversitySevanti Ninan, Journalist and researcherShafi Alam, IPS (Retd.), Former Director General, NCRB, GoIShailesh Gandhi, Former Information Commissioner of CICShantha Sinha, Former Chairperson NCPCRSharad Behar, IAS (Retd.), Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya PradeshSonalini Mirchandani, IFS (Resigned), GoISubhasis Bandyopadhyay, IIEST, ShibpurSubodh Lal, IPoS (Resigned), Former Deputy DG, Ministry of Communications, GoISudhir Nandrajog, Senior advocateSundar Burra, IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary, Govt. of MaharashtraSurabhi Agarwal, Socialist Party (India)Suresh K. Goel, IFS (Retd.), Former Director General, ICCR, GoISyeda Hameed, Former member, Planning CommissionTeesta Setalvad, Civil rights activistV.P. Raja, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, MERCVandana Shiva, Scientist, RFSTEVijaya Latha Reddy, IFS (Retd.), Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoIVipul Mudgal, Activist and media scholarVivek Mukherjee, Assistant Professor & Faculty Coordinator, NALSARVrinda Grover, AdvocateWajahat Habibullah, Former Chief Information Commissioner of CICYogendra Yadav, Swaraj India
