The senior Bhushan spoke out of turn, brushing aside repeated requests from a Bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir, Cyriac Joseph and H L Dattu that his application seeking to be made a party in the contempt proceedings against his son would be considered later.
In the application, the former law minister had expressed solidarity with his son and wanted to face contempt charges together by saying that of 16 former CJIs, eight were `definitely corrupt’ and dared the SC to send him to jail.
The Bench, however, proceeded with the contempt proceedings and senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for the editor of an English weekly, pointed to the lack of forum for a public spirited person to express concern over growing corruption charges against judges of higher judiciary. He wondered whether the court should insist on an apology or examine the concern which was eroding people’s faith in the institution.
The Bench said it had offered the persons facing contempt proceedings to apologise and get done with it. This made Shanti Bhushan stand up, ignore repeated reminders of the court that his turn had not come and say in one breath, "I am repeating what I had said in my affidavit."
He added, "It is my firm belief that there is a lot of corruption in judiciary. I am saying the same thing which Prashant Bhushan had said. The question of apology does not arise. I will rather prefer to go to jail. The judiciary cannot be cleansed unless the matter is brought into the public domain."
The Bench will continue with the hearing on December 7.