New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday, April 11, dismissed a contempt of court case against film director Vivek Agnihotri after he tendered an unconditional apology on a tweet made against Justice S. Muralidhar in 2018. The court also took into consideration that he appeared in court to "demonstrate his remorse".

According to Livelaw, Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Vikas Mahajan, presiding over a division bench, withdrew the show cause notice against Agnihotri, which had initiated contempt proceedings against him. They also acquitted him of the charge of contempt.

“Mr. Vivek Agnihotri the alleged contemnor who is arrayed as Respondent No. 4 is present before the court in person and reiterates his remorse as well as tenders an unconditional apology for the alleged offensive statement made by him on Twitter,” the bench noted, as per Indian Express.

In addition, Livelaw reported Justice Mridul as saying orally, “We'll be also cautioning you, Mr. Agnihotri to be careful in going forward."

The court stated that the case was not adversarial, but only kept pending to make it clear that statements can’t be made irresponsibly.

"In fact, the classic case is where somebody commented about the House of Lords that they are 'old idiots' to which Lord Templeman very famously said that insofar as the first expression is concerned I cannot deny that I am old; in so far as the expression fool is concerned, I will disagree with you but it does not amount to contempt. Surely, our dignity is founded on stronger foundations. Our dignity is not because somebody says something," said Justice Mridul.

Last year in September, Delhi high court had directed ex parte proceedings against Swarajya news portal, Agnihotri, Anand Ranganathan, News & Views and others who did not appear in person in the criminal contempt case against them. The court initiated the proceedings based on a letter written by senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao to the court, in which he alleged that the tweet was a deliberate and intentional effort to attack a sitting high court judge.

Four years earlier in October of 2018, a division bench headed by Justice S. Muralidhar, who at the time was serving as a judge in the Delhi high court, ordered the release of activist Gautam Navlakha from house arrest in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. Subsequently, on  October 5, 2018, Agnihotri re-posted a tweet that had previously accused Justice Muralidhar, presently the Chief Justice of the Orissa high court, of displaying bias in the case.

Agnihotri had previously in December 2022 expressed his "unconditional apology" to the court for his earlier comments through his lawyer. But the court has summoned him to appear in person to demonstrate his remorse.

Earlier, Agnihotri had informed the court that he had deleted the tweet in question. However, senior advocate Arvind Nigam, who was appointed as the amicus curiae in the case, informed the court that Twitter had actually removed the tweets in question from their platform, according to Livelaw.

Advocate J. Sai Deepak, representing Anand Ranganathan, requested a brief adjournment and assured the court that his client would be present for the next scheduled hearing. The court later listed the matter for hearing on May 24.

During a hearing related to another criminal contempt case brought against S. Gurumurthy by the Delhi High Court Bar Association, Justice Mridul stated that it is essential for every citizen to exercise caution when making statements. He emphasised that the judiciary welcomes constructive and impartial criticism, as it is essential for its functioning. However, he also noted that proceedings must run their natural course and cannot be prolonged indefinitely.

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