On Thursday, April 27, RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy told the Delhi High Court that he will not submit another affidavit tendering ‘unconditional apology’ in the 2018 Contempt-of-Court case. The court ruled that the case will now be heard on merits.
A petition filed by the Delhi High Court Bar Association seeking criminal contempt proceedings against Gurumurthy was scheduled for consideration on 6 July by a division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh.
RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy tells Delhi HC that he will not file another affidavit tendering 'unconditional apology' for his tweet against Justice S Muralidhar.
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) April 27, 2023
After his refusal, the HC has now decided to hear the criminal contempt case on merits. @sgurumurthy #DelhiHighCourt pic.twitter.com/tNAc5velVr
Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who is representing Gurumurthy, stated today that he will not file another affidavit offering an unconditional apology for his tweet because he had already filed his response in 2018. Jethmalani stated that Gurumurthy had deleted that contentious tweet right after he came to know about the factual error.
But Justice Singh verbally informed Jethmalani that Gurumurthy’s prior affidavit was just a “reply on merits” to the contempt claim and that he needed to submit a new affidavit expressing an unconditional apology. Justice Singh asked Gurumurthy’s counsel to submit a two-line affidavit and allow the court to place a quietus on it. However, Jethmalani reiterated that the bench may proceed to hear the case on merits.
The issue pertains to a tweet that Gurumurthy posted in which he questioned whether Justice Muralidhar was Senior Advocate P Chidambaram’s junior. The tweet was posted following a division bench led by Justice Muralidhar’s decision to award temporary protection to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media case.
In a suo motu criminal contempt case that includes names Gurumurthy as an alleged contemner and involved comments made against Justice Murlidhar on Twitter in 2018, the court discharged director Vivek Agnihotri recently. Agnihotri expressed regret and offered an unconditional apology saying that he has “utmost respect” for the judiciary as an institution.
Meanwhile, Anand Ranganathan, author and scientist who was added as a party to the contempt case brought against Vivek Agnihotri and Gurumurthy, has volunteered to personally appear before the bench at the upcoming hearing on May 24. Ranganathan had earlier refused to apologize before the court.
It all began when Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao wrote a letter to then Chief Justice Rajendra Menon about an article written by S Gurumurthy accusing Justice Muralidhar of bias in granting bail to Urban Naxal Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregoan case. On Desh Kapur’s blog ‘Dhristikone,’ Gurumurthy wrote the article “Why has Delhi High Court Justice Muralidhar’s relationship with Gautam Navlakha not been disclosed?” The article was retweeted in a tweet by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who received a contempt of court notice as well. Anand Ranganathan had condemned this action by the High Court in a couple of tweets.
