On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court sent fresh notices to filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, scientist and political commentator Anand Ranganathan and Swarajya Magazine in a 2018 Contempt-of-Court case. In October 2018, The Delhi High Court initiated contempt proceedings against Economist S Gurumurthy over his article on Justice S Muralidhar, where he had questioned S Muralidhar’s credibility as the High Court judge in connection with granting bail to Gautam Navlakha, one of the accused in the Koregaon Bhima violence case. Agnihotri and Ranganathan, who had tweeted about the issue on similar lines, were slapped with the charges of contempt later.
Just In: Delhi HC issues fresh notices against @vivekagnihotri, @ARanganathan72, @SwarajyaMag, others in suo motu criminal contempt petition relating to article alleging “bias” of Justice S Muralidhar for setting aside transit remand order against UAPA accused Gautam Navlakha.
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) May 5, 2022
It all started when Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao wrote a letter to then Chief Justice Rajendra Menon, about an article written by S Gurumurthy alleging bias on the part of Justice Muralidhar for granting bail to Urban Naxal Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregoan case. Gurumurthy had penned the article “Why has Delhi High Court Justice Muralidhar’s relationship with Gautam Navlakha not been disclosed?” on Desh Kapur’s blog ‘Dhristikone’. The article was retweeted by Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri in a tweet, following which a contempt of court notice was sent to him as well.
Anand Ranganathan, who is a free speech absolutist, allegedly condemned this action by the High Court in a couple of Tweets. It turned out that certain tweets of his were withheld in India with the message “This tweet from @ARanganathan72 has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand.” The two tweets were withheld evidently in response to legal demand which was criticising the contempt of court notices that were earlier served to S Gurumurthy and Vivek Agnihotri. It was later known that the same charges had been levied against Dr Ranganathan as well.
As per HC order Desh Kapur has withdrawn the offending article & tendered unconditional apology to Court. Since I do not follow him I would not know whether he has tweeted his apology. Even if he does it, unless mentions my handle, I will be able to retweet it as directed by HC
— S Gurumurthy (@sgurumurthy) October 15, 2019
However, Gurumurthy was dropped as a respondent in the matter after he offered to retweet an unconditional apology tendered by the blog host Kapoor on his Twitter handle. He informed the same on October 15, 2019, saying, “As per HC order Desh Kapur has withdrawn the offending article & tendered an unconditional apology to Court. Since I do not follow him I would not know whether he has tweeted his apology. Even if he does it, unless mentions my handle, I will be able to retweet it as directed by HC.”
Nevertheless, the proceedings against Agnihotri, Ranganathan and several others continued in the case. Now afresh, a Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Rajnish Bhatnagar noted that no one had appeared for the Agnihotri, Ranganathan and Swarajya in the last few hearings pertaining to the case. Therefore, the bench decided that adverse orders be deferred against the three in the interest of justice.
On Wednesday, Advocate Arvind Nigam with the help of an Amicus Curiae (advisory to the court) informed that while no one lawyer has appeared for many of the respondents in the last several hearings, there are still people who have not even been served the notice. Hence, the Court issued fresh notices to Vivek Agnihotri, Anand Ranganathan and the Swarajya Magazine and several others through a counsel which had earlier represented them as well as through email. The matter has been listed for further hearing on September 19.
Anand Ranganathan says he has done nothing wrong
Reacting to the notice issued by the Delhi High Court, Anand Ranganathan has issued a statement saying that he will not apologise, as he has not done anything wrong. He said that he had not commented on the merit of the case of the bail granted to Gautam Navlakha, but he had only said that it was wrong to file case against S Gurumurthy and Vivek Agnihotri for criticising the judge. He said that he stood with them not only because he is a free-speech absolutist but also because he fundamentally opposes the contempt of court charge.
My statement on being issued a notice by the Delhi High Court in the suo motu criminal contempt case regarding relief provided by the hon'ble judge to UAPA-accused Gautam Navlakha.
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) May 5, 2022
I have done nothing wrong. I will NOT apologise. pic.twitter.com/VVdYP1pn91
Ranganathan said that he has never received any notice or summon in the case that has gone on for 4 years, and reiterated that he will not apologise and will continue to oppose contempt of court charge.
