The Delhi High Court on Monday discharged filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri from the contempt case filed against him for remarks made against former Delhi High Court judge and current Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice S Muralidhar on Twitter in 2018.
In 2018, Agnihotri allegedly retweeted a post against Justice Muralidhar, in relation to the judge’s judgement quashing the order of house arrest and transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Vivek Agnihotri appears in person before the Delhi High Court to offer his unconditional apology for his remarks against Justice S. Muralidhar in 2018.
A division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Vikas Mahajan recalled the show cause notice for beginning criminal contempt proceedings against Agnihotri and also released him as an alleged contemner.
“He states that he has the utmost respect for the institution of the judiciary and that he did not intend to willfully offend the majesty of court,” the court stated.
The court also warned the director not to make similar comments in the future. “We’ll also be cautioning you, Mr. Agnihotri, to be careful going forward,” Justice Mridul stated.
Advocate J. Sai Deepak, who was representing another alleged contemner, Anand Ranganathan, requested a short accommodation and stated that he will be present in court on the next day of hearing.
Justice Mridul while hearing another related criminal contempt case brought by the Delhi High Court Bar Association against S Gurumurthy stated, “What is relevant is that every citizen should know that you must be careful. We welcome constructive criticism. It’s how we work. But the fact is that occasionally each proceeding runs its course, and we can’t keep them pending any longer.”
The case has now been scheduled for further hearing on May 24, 2023.
Agnihotri offered an “unconditional apology” before the court in December last year for his remarks, and the judge urged him to remain present to “show remorse in person.”
The court ordered an ex-parte proceeding against Swarajya news outlet, Anand Ranganathan, and others who did not attend in the case in September 2022.
The investigation was launched after Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao filed a letter with the court claiming that the tweet was a premeditated attempt to attack a sitting high court judge.
Previously, Agnihotri told the court that he had removed the offending tweet. However, amicus curiae Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam informed the court that Twitter had stated in its answer that the tweets had been removed by the microblogging platform.
