2018 Contempt Case: Delhi High Court Directs Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri To Remain Present In Court On April 10

The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri to remain present before it on April 10 in the 2018 suo motu criminal contempt proceedings initiated against him and several others for remarks against Justice S. Muralidhar.

In 2018, Agnihotri allegedly made allegations of bias in a  tweet against Justice Muralidhar, former judge of the High Court and present Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, in respect of the judge's order quashing the order of house arrest and transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.

In December last year, Agnihotri had tendered an “unconditional apology” before the court for his remarks after which the court asked him to remain present to “show remorse in person.”

Agnihotri’s counsel today informed a division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh that the filmmaker has already tendered unconditional apology but could not be present in court due to high fever.

“What does the previous order say? When is he going to be here. Tell us, we'll have it then,” the court told Agnihotri’s counsel.

The court added: “We're not asking. We have directed you (to remain present). There's no question.”

As the court listed a similar plea moved by Delhi High Court Bar Association for hearing on April 10, Agnihotri’s counsel also agreed that the suo motu proceedings be listed on the same day and that the filmmaker will remain present on that day.

“He (Vivek Agnihotri) is granted exemption for today on the ground that he is indisposed. He undertakes to appear on the next date,” the court said while adjourning the matter.

As the counsel appearing for Anand Ranganathan, another alleged contemner, informed court that his client is willing to participate in the proceedings, Amicus Curiae Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam submitted that Ranganathan has tweeted that he will never apologize for his tweets.

”He (Ranganathan) said that he will never apologize and will go down fighting,” Nigam told court.

Hearing this, Justice Mridul remarked: “Why?…this is not a civil war?”

In September 2022, the court had directed to proceed ex parte against Swarajya news portal, Anand Ranganathan and others who did not appear in the matter.

The proceedings were initiated after Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao wrote a letter to the court stating that the tweet was a deliberate attempt to attack a sitting high court judge.

Previously, Agnihotri had told court that he has taken down the tweet in question. However, amicus curiae Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam had informed court that Twitter in its response has said that the tweets were taken down by the microblogging platform.