Renowned filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has tendered an unconditional apology before the High Court of Delhi in a case of contempt, which was related to remarks made by him on microblogging platform Twitter in 2018 against Justice S. Muralidhar.
While the hearing on the matter was in progress, the filmmaker Agnihotri that he has utmost respect for the institution of judiciary.
In 2018, Agnihotri had retweeted a post against Justice Muralidhar, who was the former judge of the High Court and currently the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, for quashing the order of house arrest and transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.
A Division Bench of Justice Vikas Mahajan and Justice Siddharth Mridul recalled the showcause notice for initiating proceedings of criminal contempt against Agnihotri.
The Court also discharged him as alleged contemner.
The Court said that the film maker had utmost respect for institution of judiciary and didn’t intend to willfully offend the majesty of court.
Justice Mridul orally said that the filmaker needs to be very carefulin future as well.
The other alleged contemner Anand Ranganathan was represented by Advocate J. Sai Deepak for a short accommodation and submitted that he will remain present in court on the next date of hearing.
While hearing another connected criminal contempt case filed by Delhi High Court Bar Association against S Gurumurthy,the court said that every citizen of the country must know that you should be careful. We invite just and fair criticism. This is how we function.
The Court added that Gurumurthy has expressed remorse and tendered an unconditional apology…
Justice Gogoi said that courts do not punish for contempt to secure their dignity as the dignity of a court does not come from what people have to say but from the duties it discharges.