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Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri today appeared before the Delhi High Court and tendered an unconditional apology in connection with a criminal contempt case over his alleged remarks against a judge of the court. Accepting Agnihotri’s apology, a bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Vikas Mahajan freed him from the contempt charge and warned him to be careful in future. The bench said, “Vivek Agnihotri said that he has the highest respect for the institution of the judiciary and he did not intend to intentionally malign the majesty of this court.” In view of this, the show cause notice issued to him is withdrawn. Vivek Agnihotri is exonerated as the alleged contemnor.
Vivek Agnihotri apologized
Vivek Agnihotri appeared before the court following the earlier instructions of the High Court. In 2018, the filmmaker accused Justice S Muralidhar of being biased in a tweet after he ordered the release of activist Gautam Navlakha from house arrest in the Bhima-Korogaon violence case. He was then a judge of the Delhi High Court and is now the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court. Following this, the High Court initiated contempt of court proceedings against Agnihotri and others.
what was the whole matter
The filmmaker had tendered an unconditional apology through an affidavit, following which the court had asked him to appear in person on December 6 last year to apologise. The counsel appearing for another alleged contemnor Anand Ranganathan assured the court that he would be present before it on May 24, the next date of hearing in the matter. Senior advocate Arvind Nigam, who is assisting the court in the matter as an amicus curiae, had earlier informed that Ranganathan had tweeted regarding the contempt proceedings that he would fight it.
Court asked to apologize
The court itself initiated contempt proceedings in the matter after receiving a letter from senior advocate Rajasekhar Rao. Contempt proceedings were also initiated against Swaminathan Gurumurthy, editor of the Chennai-based weekly “Thuglak” for his tweet against the judge. The proceedings against Gurumurthy were closed in October 2019. (with language input)
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