Delhi HC Discharges Vivek Agnihotri in Contempt Case After Unconditional Apology

The case was initiated over Vivek Agnihotri's remarks against Orissa's Chief Justice S Muralidhar.

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri tender apology. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

The Delhi High Court discharged filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri from a contempt case over his remarks against the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, Justice S Muralidhar, on 10 April, as per a report by Bar and Bench.

In continuation of the report, a suo moto criminal contempt petition was initiated by the Court after social media users made remarks against Justice Muralidhar for granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha. The petition was heard by a division bench of Justices Mridul and Vikas Mahajan.

The Kashmir Files director was present in court for the hearing. Anand Ranganathan, the other accused in the case, was also called for his presence in the court by Justice Mridul.

As per Bar and Bench, Ranganathan's advocate, J Sai Deepak, said that there was no order for Ranganathan to be present personally. The counsel, however, assured that Ranganathan will be present in court for his next hearing on 24 May.

The court cautioned Agnihotri to be careful with his remarks in the future, as per Bar and Bench.

In his tweets, Agnihotri alleged bias on Justice Muralidhar's part in granting bail to Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.

Agnihotri expressed his unconditional apology for his remarks on 6 December 2022. Agnihotri also filed an affidavit in this regard, withdrawing his statement against the judge and apologising.

As per Bar and Bench, the filmmaker had also moved an application to recall the ex-parte order in the case, requesting permission to participate in its proceedings. However, the bench insisted that Agnihotri remain present in court for the hearing.

On the work front, Agnihotri announced his next two projects, The Vaccine War and The Delhi Files.