Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan has denied to apologize for his tweets wherein he criticized the top court and Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde. The tweets represent his bona fide belief and retracting his statements would be an insincere apology, Bhushan said in a statement submitted before the Supreme Court on Monday.

The statement of Bhushan reads as, "An apology has to be sincerely made. If I retract a statement that I otherwise believe to be true or offer an insincere apology that in my eyes would amount to contempt of my conscience and of an institution (Supreme Court) that I hold in highest esteem."

The Supreme Court on August 20 had asked Bhushan to reconsider his stance and offer an apology by Monday (August 24) while hearing on the sentence to be awarded to him. Earlier, on August 14, the court had ruled that Bhushan was guilty of contempt of court and kept the matter for deciding on punishment for August 20.

Bhushan issued a statement in which he chose to stick to his tweets on August 20. He had posted two tweets, one against the Supreme Court on June 27 and another against CJI Bobde on June 29.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, on August 20, asked the court not to punish Bhushan. The court is now expected to pronounce its order in the coming days on the sentence to be imposed on Bhushan.