Prashant Bhushan, Lokmanya Tilak, and the Supreme Court

Prashant Bhushan’s case brings to mind the sedition case against Lokmanya Tilak and how it influenced the Indian freedom movement against the British empire.

Prashant Bhushan’s statement after the Supreme Court granted him a two to three day concession to reconsider his tweets has left the Apex court with little choice. They are faced with a choice as to whether to punish him with a monetary fine or with imprisonment. Monetary punishment will mostly be a symbolic act as finances are not a problem for Prashant Bhushan. Not only is he a well to do legal practitioner, but his followers can also band together to collect the necessary sum to deposit in the treasury of the Supreme Court. If they do go down that route, each of the contributors could proudly claim to be a ‘Prashant Bhushan’, standing up to the mighty judiciary. The honourable Supreme Court should evaluate whether such a scenario could be considered as contempt or respect for the court.

The wise judges should also keep in mind the possibility that Bhushan may refuse to pay the fine. After all, the person whom he quoted in his statement of 20th August had refused to pay the bail bond to the court. Not that M K Gandhi was a pauper or that his supporters were not generous enough to collect the bail amount for him! However, Gandhi wanted to take on the judiciary to galvanize public support against the British rule. He had taken a clue from his political guru Bal Gangadhar Tilak, whose political legacy he carried forward since 1st August 1920, the day that Tilak sadly succumbed to his illnesses.

Tilak’s arguments had the power to confuse the jury members. Therefore, Judge J Davak told the jury categorically,

“Well, gentlemen, how are we sitting here as Judge and Jury to decide whether the writing of the accused has excited or is calculated to excite feelings of hatred, contempt, ill-will, enmity and disloyalty against Government. Is it possible to prove that by evidence? It is impossible for the prosecution in a case of this kind to prove by actual evidence as to whether if the seed is sown it has fructified or not. Therefore, the true test that you have to apply is to look at the various articles that are placed before you and judge of them as a whole and judge what effect they produce on your minds in the first instance, judge whether they are calculated to produce feelings of hatred, contempt, disloyalty, enmity towards the Government in the mind of the readers of those articles.”

Column
Parimal Maya Sudhakar
22nd  Aug 2020

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Read this article published in Asiaville on 22nd Aug 2020

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