Indian activist lawyer fined one rupee for tweets
India's top court yesterday imposed a symbolic fine of one rupee on a prominent lawyer found guilty of criminal contempt for posts on Twitter that were critical of senior judges, which he declined to apologise for. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court said that lawyer Prashant Bhushan must pay the fine by September 15, failing which he could be imprisoned for three months and barred from practice for three years. The case sparked a debate around free speech and the judiciary's openness to criticism, with thousands of lawyers backing Bhushan and arguing that the court was being too harsh.
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