Vivek Agnihotri. File.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri to appear before the court and “show remorse in person” after he tendered a written apology for his tweets alleging bias against a judge who had in October 2018 granted relief to activist Gautam Navlakha in connection with Koregaon-Bhima violence case.
A Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh asked if. Mr Agnihotri had any difficulty in appearing before the court in person.
“We are asking him [Mr. Agnihotri] to remain present because he is the alleged contemnor. Does he have any difficulty to appear before this court? He has to be present and show remorse in person,” the Bench said.
“Does he have any difficulty if he has to express remorse in person? The remorse cannot always be expressed by way of an affidavit,” it told Mr. Agnihotri’s lawyer.
Mr. Agnihotri’s lawyer said the filmmaker had tendered an unconditional apology in an affidavit in which he had also stated that he deleted his tweets against the judge himself. The amicus curiae, appointed by the court to assist in the case, disputed this saying that Twitter deleted his tweets.
In a tweet in October 2018, Mr. Agnihotri accused Justice S. Muralidhar, who was then a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court and is currently the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, of bias after a Bench he headed quashed Mr. Navlakha’s house arrest and transit remand in Koregaon-Bhima violence case.
Subsequently, on October 25, 2018 a contempt case was initiated by the High Court based on a letter received from advocate Rajshekhar Rao, who had also submitted an article along with video, uploaded on the internet, in respect of Justice Murlidhar.
The court had earlier directed two social media platforms to block the weblinks of the article levelling scandalous allegations against the judge.
On Tuesday, the court was hearing an application filed by Mr. Agnihotri seeking permission to participate in the criminal contempt proceedings initiated by it. The Bench allowed Mr. Agnihotri’s application and asked him to remain present in the court in person on March 16, 2023, the next date of hearing.
In September this year, the court decided to proceed against Mr. Agnihotri and other alleged contemnors, including Anand Ranganathan and Swarajya magazine, after noting that they were not represented in the case.
In October 2019, the court closed the contempt of court proceedings against Mr. Swaminathan Gurumurthy, editor of weekly magazine Thuglak, for re-tweeting an article against Justice Murlidhar.
