The honorable Supreme Court has slapped a fine of Re 1 on lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan who was held guilty of contempt of court after he tweeted criticism of Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde and the Supreme Court.

Prashant Bhushan might be sent to jail for 3 months and his license to practice will be revoked fror three years if he does not pay the fine of Re 1 by 15 September.

Supreme Court passed the sentence after the senior lawyer refused to apologise to the court for his remarks, saying that in doing so, he will be doing further contempt of court and hurting his own conscience. He added that the apex court must shoulder the criticism levelled by a practising lawyer of the institution.

This sentence was handed down by the Supreme Court, who said that "Freedom of speech cannot be curtailed" after advice to the apex institution from Attornety General KK Venugopal. Venugopal had suggested in the last hearing that Bhushan should be let off with a warning - "Bhushan's tweets seek the improvement of the administreation of justice...let democracy follow in this case when he has exercised his free speech. It will be tremendously appreciated if the court leaves it at that", he had said.