The Delhi High Court discharged filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri in a suo moto criminal contempt case after he tendered an unconditional apology for his tweets alleging bias against former HC judge Justice S Muralidhar, reported The Indian Express.
The court was hearing his application in the 2018 case. Agnihotri was physically present in court as directed by the court in an order issued last month.
A division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Vikas Mahajan observed that “the alleged contemnor in the present suo moto criminal contempt is present before the court in person and reiterates as well as tenders his unconditional apology for an allegedly offensive statement made by him on Twitter”.
“In view of the foregoing and particular circumstance that Mr Vivek Agnihotri that he has the utmost respect for the institution of the judiciary and did not intend to wilfully offend the majesty of the court, the notice to showcause as to why contempt should not be issued to him is recalled. Mr Vivek Agnihotri is hereby discharged,” the Bench added.
In 2018, Agnihotri put out tweets alleging bias against Justice Muralidhar, currently the chief justice of the Orissa High Court, as he had released rights activist Gautam Navlakha from house arrest in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Subsequently, contempt of court proceedings was initiated against Agnihotri and others by the court.
On 6 December last year, the court asked the filmmaker to “show remorse in person” after he tendered an unconditional apology through an affidavit.
With respect to another contempt plea moved by the Delhi High Court Bar Association against RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, the Bench observed that the alleged contemnor had already expressed his remorse and had appeared physically and tendered an unconditional apology.
The Association argued that there is a previous order of the court which has to be complied with.
Justice Mridul remarked, “Justice Ranjan Gogoi has rendered a judgment on contempt which says that courts do not punish for contempt to secure our dignity. We don’t need it to uphold our dignity…. every citizen should know that you must be careful. We invite just and fair criticism. But the fact is the proceeding has run its course… you have to give it a peaceful quietus”.
The contempt proceedings were initiated against Gurumurthy, the editor of the Chennai-based weekly, “Thuglak”, for his tweets against the judge.
The proceedings against Gurumurthy were subsequently closed in October 2019.
The HC has listed the matter for hearing on 24 May. (Express)
