Aastha Thakur
Published on: 07 December 2022 at 21:27 IST
The Indian Film Director Vivek Agnihotri gave an unconditional apology before the Delhi HC in the suo-motu criminal contempt case case initiated against him in connection with relief provided by Justice S. Muralidhar to UAPA-accused Gautam Navlakha. The court was hearing his application in a 2018 suo moto criminal contempt case pertaining to his tweets.
The division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh said that as it is a suo moto matter, therefore, Agnihotri will have to remain present before the court on the next date of hearing i.e March 16, 2023.
Agnihotri has filed an affidavit in connection with his statement against the judge who is presently the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.
The matter is regarding the tweets allegedly made in support of an article written by S Gurumurthy against the verdict dismissing the transit remand order against Bhima Koregaon Violence accused Gautam Navlakha in 2018.
The high court issued criminal contempt notice against Gurumurthy for the alleged remarks made by him that Justice S Muralidhar was biased in passing the order releasing Gautam Navlakha from house arrest.
The bench had issued the notice after receiving a letter from Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao alleging contempt. The article tweeted by Gurumurthy was titled, “Why has Delhi High Court Justice Muralidhar’s relationship with Gautam Navlakha not been disclosed?”
However, on October 14, 2019, the Delhi High Court removed Gurumurthy from the list of respondents in contempt matter after he issued an apology.
In September this year, the high court had proceeded against Dr. Anand Ranganathan, Vivek Agnihotri, and Swarajya magazine ex-parte after nobody appeared for them in the matter.