[BREAKING] Twitter "Withholds" Advocate Prashant Bhushan's Tweets after Suo Motu Contempt Notice by Supreme Court

After a Justice Arun Mishra led bench of the Supreme Court issued contempt of court notice to Advocate Prashant Bhushan for his tweets critiquing the judiciary, Twitter has withheld the two impugned tweets by the lawyer. .Breaking: Supreme Court issues notice to Prashant Bhushan, Twitter, and AG Venugopal in suo motu contempt case filed over tweet on CJI Bobde.The top court had primarily taken note of two tweets by the advocate as "bringing disrepute to the administration of justice.".The tweet in question, posted by Bhushan on June 29, stated,"CJI rides a 50 Lakh motorcycle belonging to a BJP leader at Raj Bhavan Nagpur, without a mask or helmet, at a time when he keeps the SC in Lockdown mode denying citizens their fundamental right to access Justice!".The next tweet mentioned by the three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, BR Gavai and Krishna Murari was the one posted on June 27 and read as : "When historians in future look back at the last 6 years to see how democracy has been destroyed in India even without a formal Emergency, they will particularly mark the role of the Supreme Court in this destruction, & more particularly the role of the last 4 CJIs.".As per Twitter's policy and guidelines when a tweet is withheld it is usually after a court order or a legal action. However, in this case, a notice of contempt has been issued to Twitter Inc and Bhushan to explain if at all the tweets were contemptuous in nature..Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya, appearing for Twitter had clarified to Bar & Bench about his argument in Court that Twitter only deletes a tweet if there is a court order and in this case the protocol after the notice was to inform Twitter Inc about the impugned tweets. .However, after Twitter withheld the tweets, Senior Advocate Poovayya elaborating the legal position stated that "withholding tweets" does not mean "deletion of tweets.".Supreme Court of India had taken suo moto cognizance of the tweets by Advocate Bhushan on July 22 for being contemptuous in nature. The legal proposition is that when a court takes cognizance of a subject as contemptuous, it is a prima facie rendition that the matter is liable for contempt even if at the end of the trial no one is punished. So in this case by withholding the tweet, Twitter has kept the option open for either deleting the tweets or restoring them following a final decision by the courtSenior Advocate Poovayya told Bar & Bench.While issuing notice and taking up the matter suo motu, the top court noted that the tweets by the lawyer brought "disrepute" to the "administration of justice."We are, prima facie, of the view that the aforesaid statements on Twitter have brought the administration of justice in disrepute and are capable of undermining the dignity and authority of the Institution of Supreme Court in general and the office of the Chief Justice of India in particular, in the eyes of public at large. We take suo motu cognizance of the aforesaid tweet also apart from the tweet quoted above and suo motu register the proceedings, " read the SC order..A week before the Apex Court registered a suo motu contempt case against Bhushan on July 9, Mahek Maheshwari, an advocate based in Guna, Madhya Pradesh, had filed a petition against Bhushan and Twitter India seeking contempt action against both.