Asking filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri to be “cautious in future”, the Delhi high court on April 10 ended criminal contempt proceedings against him after taking note of his unconditional apology over remarks against a former high court judge. Vivek reiterated the apology over his 2018 tweets alleging bias, against Justice S. Muralidhar, then a Delhi high court judge and currently the Orissa high court Chief Justice.
Vivek Agnihotri’s tweets were posted after Justice Muralidhar quashed activist Gautam Navlakha’s house arrest in the Bhima Koregaon violence case and ordered his immediate release. The high court, in its order, stated, “In view of the circumstances that Vivek Agnihotri stated that he has utmost respect for the institution of judiciary and did not intend to wilfully offend the majesty of this court, the notice to show cause issued to him is hereby recalled. Vivek Agnihotri stands discharged as alleged contemnor.”
Meanwhile, Agnihotri has clarified that all he had done in 2018 was to post, as a tweet thread, an article on Gautam Navlakha, published by America-based Drishtikone. He added that he cited the source and the author. He continued, “Thereafter, the Delhi high court issued a suo moto contempt of court against Drishtikone, Shri S. Gurumurthy and myself. The article was taken down by the author with an apology immediately, followed by Shri S. Gurumurthy unconditionally apologising in the court. This left me with no locus standi and I was morally and intellectually obligated to apologise for sharing information from a source that had retracted the article and apologised. To project it otherwise, as a fight for justice and courage, would be pretentious and misplaced.” He has explained that he was issuing the clarification as the reportage of his discharge by some “biased media and political parties” was “totally false”.