After Rahul Gandhi's close aide and Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana didn't just level allegations, but actually held the Chief Justice of India guilty of "bench-fixing" by citing a number of 'cases', a shocked Harish Salve has said that the time has come for contempt of court to be initiated and for people to be sent to jail for such indiscretions.

Should he not be impeached? pic.twitter.com/ULLiFhKvBP — Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) April 23, 2018

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Salve hit out at the Congress, saying that it's contempt of court was nothing new and had, in fact, only been taken to new levels:

"I think over the generations, Congress has gone from cutting judiciary to size and fallen to a point that it's scandalising, horrifying and vilifying the judiciary."

Opining on the Prasad Educational Trust case, which was one of the main charges levelled in the now-rejected impeachment motion against the CJI, Harish Salve accused the Opposition of having their facts in a tangle as the matter originated long before Dipak Misra assumed his current position and even before he was a judge in the Supreme Court.

WATCH: Ram Jethmalani Calls Rahul Gandhi A Small And Unqualified Person; Backs CJI Impeachment Motion's Rejection

He also challenged Divya Spandana alleging that CJI Dipak Misra had 'bench-fixed' in the Aadhaar case, narrating the series of events that culminated in the CJI presiding over a 5-judge bench, which is the norm he has observed since the 70s.

"A time has come that a firm action under contempt of court needs to be taken and people must be sent to jail", the former Solicitor General of India said, going on to express how upset he was over the manner in which proceedings had been carried out in the Judge Loya case and professing his regret that the Supreme Court bench had refrained from initiating contempt of court in the matter.

WATCH: Top Jurist Fali Nariman Launches A Scathing Attack On MPs, Lawyers Who Signed Impeachment Motion

Salve said that judges had been subjected to nonsense and that this 'fungus' had been allowed to grow.

"If a common man believes that you can talk like this about the court and walk away then we might as well wind up our constitutuonal courts", Salve said.

When asked about the manner in which jurists such as Prashant Bhushan and Kapil Sibal had been participating in court proceedings, Salve said, "We've seen a sharp decline in the kind of address made to courts."

Taking on Kapil Sibal, Salve said:

"I was in the Ayodhya case when Mr Sibal threatened to walk out of the case. I was sitting there stunned to hear a lawyer saying he would walk out. Understand the connotation of walking out, it's awful disrespect."

He summed up the matter thusly: "It's like a child daring you. He does something naughty, you let him go. He wants to see how far he can push the envelope."

"If it becomes such that anyone can spew venom and walk away, someday, someone against whom the court gives a judgment will turn around and say 'I hope you haven't taken a bribe.'"

Asked if an apology was required:

"There's no question of apologising. This is beyond apology. Apology is in the heat of the moment if someone says something and then says sorry."

On being asked for the reason for the Opposition's impeachment motion, and the Congress subsequently holding the CJI guilty of bench-fixing, Salve offered 'frustration' as an explanation.

"I hope those who are given to filing PILs don't try to use the courts to govern." He listed a set of case types where a PIL would be more appropriate, saying the following about the cases in which they were being filed: "it's a catalogue of politically motivated PILs."

Earlier in the day, after the Vice President rejected the Opposition's impeachment motion against the CJI, the Congress said it would challenge the order in the Supreme Court and would keep the CJI far away from the matter.

Watch what Harish Salve had to say in the video above.