Condemning the attempt of filing contempt case against Advocate Prashant Bhushan
We the undersigned state that it was shameful for Justice S H Kapadia – one of the three-judge Forest Bench that was hearing the Niyamgiri case – to pass an order in the Supreme Court holding that while Vedanta could not be given the license to mine Niyamgiri because it had been black-listed by the Norwegian government, the license should be given to Sterlite which is a subsidiary of Vedanta. Justice Kapadia said in the open court that he had shares in Sterlite.
The lawyer Prashant Bhushan in an interview in Tehelka said that this was a clear case of conflict of interest. In his defense Jusitce Kapadia said that no lawyer raised an objection at the time.
This defense does not hold because the only adversarial lawyer, Sanjay Parekh had already been prevented from representing his clients, the tribal people of Niyamgiri, and was told to shut up by one of the judges.
It is shameful that Harish Salve appeared in the NIyamgiri matter as an amicus of the court despite being paid a retainer by Vedanta. Having committed such professional misconduct, he has now applied to the court to have Prashant Bhushan and Tehelka charged with contempt of court. We the undersigned wish to state that we feel that Prashant Bhushan’s statement is absolutely correct & justified and that Justice Kapadia and Harish Salve are guilty of gross misconduct.
Signed by:
- Prafulla Samantara, Lok Shankti Abhiyan, Orissa
- Dr. Mira Shiva, New Delhi
- Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty, New Delhi
- Arundhati Roy, New Delhi
- Moushumi Basu, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, New Delhi
- Subrat Kumar Sahu, New Delhi
- Kalpana Mehta, New Delhi
- Mamata Dash, NFFPFW, New Delhi
- Sanjay Kak, New Delhi
- Ravi Hemadri, New Delhi
- Soumya Dutta, Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha, New Delhi
- Ashok Agrawal, Advocate, New Delhi
- Birju Nayak, Lok Raj Sangathan, New Delhi
- Arun Bidani, Delhi Platform, New Delhi
- Nagaraj Adve, Delhi Platform, New Delhi
- R Sreedhar, Academy for Mountain Environics, New Delhi
- Biswajit Mohanty, New Delhi
- D Manjit, Kashipur Solidarity Group, Delhi
- Shibayan Raha, New Delhi
- Ramanand
- Subhranshu Kumar Das, New Delhi
- Linda Luiz, New Delhi
- Rohit Kumar
- Nayanjyoti, CSSS, JNU, New Delhi
- Sushant Panigrahi, New Delhi
- Arya, Delhi University, New Delhi
- Nakul N P, CPS, JNU, New Delhi
- Diwan Singh, National Heritage First, New Delhi
- Susanta Kumar Kanungo, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi
- Umakant, New Delhi
- Asit, CSDS, New Delhi
- Sunny, New Delhi
- B N Prasad, JNU, New Delhi
- Leo Fernandez, New Delhi
- Rita Kumar, SADED, New Delhi
- Putul Kumari, Lok Rajneet Manch
- Sayantoni Datta, New Delhi
- Nishant Alag, Environics, New Delhi
- Shaweta Anand, CSMCH, SSS-II, JNU, New Delhi
- Devender Jindal, Delhi Platform, New Delhi
- Isha, Kashipur Solidarity Group & Pratidhwani, New Delhi
- Himanshu Upadhyaya, Academy for Mountain Environics, New Delhi
- Laxman Singh, Vanchit Morcha, New Delhi
- Iqbal Abhimanyu, Vidyarthi Yuvjan Sabha & Pratidhwani, New Delhi
- Shiuli Vanja, Vidyarti Yuvjan Sabha & Pratidhwani, New Delhi
- Umesh Sinha, Jharkhand Hulgulan Party
- Ghanshyam, ABHIYAN, Jharkhand
- Pankaj, J P Smruti Kuti, Betia, Bihar
- Shekhar, Ranchi, Jharkhand
- Siddheswar Sunder, Jharkhand
- Saswati Sweltana, New Delhi
- Manu Sharma, New Delhi
- Ashok Sharma, Delhi Forum
- Giridhari Patra, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Kalahandi Sachetana Nagarik Manch, Orissa
- Satish Kumar, Lok Raj Sangathan, New Delhi
- Vasundhar Jairath, Intercultural Resources, New Delhi
- Ghana Phokchom, Delhi School of Economics & Pratidhwani, New Delhi
- Kundan Kumar, Bihar
- Soma K P, New Delhi
- Sourabh, Pratidhwani, New Delhi
