No nod for contempt case against Prashant Bhushan

New Delhi, Nov 29: Attorney General KK Venugopal has declined consent for initiation of criminal contempt proceedings against Prashant Bhushan for his tweets in which he was critical of Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde being provided a special helicopter by the Madhya Pradesh government, saying the activist-lawyer later expressed regret.

On October 21, Bhushan had said the CJI availed the special helicopter during his visit to Kanha national park while "an important case of disqualification of defecting MLAs of MP (Madhya Pradesh) is pending before him. Survival of MP govt depends on this case".

However, Bhushan on November 4 had regretted the error in his earlier tweet and tweeted: "Elections were held yesterday to seats of defecting Cong MLAs in MP who were made ministers in the Shivraj Govt. Survival of Shivraj govt will depend on their re-election, not on decision of case in CJIs court challenging their ministership. I regret this error in my tweet below."