Vivek Agnihotri tenders unconditional apology for tweets against Orissa Chief Justice in contempt of court case

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, best known for the blockbuster The Kashmir Files, on Monday tendered an in-person apology before the Delhi High Court for his tweets against Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, S Muralidhar. After his apology, the court discharged him from the contempt of court case against him.

“He states that he has utmost respect for institution of judiciary and didn't intend to willfully offend the majesty of court. The notice to show cause issued to him is hereby recalled. He stands discharged as alleged contemptnor,” the court said. The court also added that Twitter ‘has become a source of great misery’. The court also cautioned Agnihotri to remain careful in future.

On March 16, the court had directed Agnihotri to appear before it on April 10 to tender an apology in person. In December last year, the filmmaker had apologised to the court for his remarks but it had deferred the hearing after recording his submission that he will remain present personally in court for the hearing on March 16.

However, Agnihotri appeared via video conferencing and said that he has fever. An affidavit was filed by the diretor withdrawing his statement against the judge and tendering his apology during the last hearing.

Agnihotri had put out tweets against Justice Muralidhar. Pursuant to the tweets, Agnihotri had put alleging bias against Justice Muralidhar. As a result, contempt of court proceedings were initiated against the director. Agnihotri’s tweets were regarding the judge granting relief to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.

In September 2022, the court had decided to proceed ex-parte against Agnihotri. Post which, he filed an affidavit expressing apology. Agnihotri had mentioned in his affidavit that he himself had deleted his tweets against the judge. However, the Amicus Curiae senior advocate Arvind Nigam had pointed out that it could be the social media platform which deleted the tweets and not Agnihotri himself.