The Supreme Court took just 22 days to declare lawyer Prashant Bhushan guilty of contempt of court. Yet the same court has moved at less than snail's pace on two contempt matters pertaining to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. One of these petitions has been pending before it for 27 years, the other for 25 years.

After the Babri Masjid was razed on December 6, 1992, the Supreme Court initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and officials of the state government. This was because they had assured the court that the kar seva, scheduled for December 6, 1992, was to be symbolic, and that no harm would come to Babri Masjid.