Not Peevish About Being Called Names But Won’t Tolerate Obstruction Of Judicial Functioning: Delhi High Court In Contempt Case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that “it is not peevish about being called names” but will not tolerate something which obstructs functioning of the court or the judicial system.

The division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anish Dayal was hearing a suo motu criminal contempt case initiated by the court in 2018.

The case relates to certain tweets made in 2018 against Justice Muralidhar, former judge of the High Court and present Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, in respect of an order passed by him quashing the order of house arrest and transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.

“We welcome just and fair criticism. If you have just and fair criticism of courts, you are free to….what cannot be appreciated is something that we cannot say lowers the majesty of court but obstructs functioning of the court…the system. That we will not tolerate," the bench remarked.


It added: “We are not peevish about being called names but we are very concerned when system is obstructed.”

During the hearing today, Advocate J Sai Deepak appearing for one of the alleged contemners, author Anand Ranganathan, told court that he has filed an affidavit clarifying his position that his statement was a not a comment on the specific facts of the case but was general in nature.

In the previous hearing, Deepak told court that the tweet put by his client was not with respect to the issue in question and that an affidavit will be filed making the position clear. Ranganathan had also called himself a “free speech absolutist” and had said that he did not comment or post any tweet on Justice S Muralidhar.

Today, Deepak submitted before court that tendering an unconditional apology in the case would amount to accepting the allegations in the contempt proceedings.

The matter will now be listed on November 09.

The suo motu proceedings were initiated after Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao wrote a letter to the court stating that the tweet was a deliberate attempt to attack a sitting high court judge.

In April, the court discharged Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who was another contemner, in the matter after he appeared in person, expressed his remorse and tendered an unconditional apology.

In September 2022, the court had directed to proceed ex parte against Swarajya news portal, Anand Ranganathan and others who did not appear in the matter.

Title: Court In Its Own v. S Gurumurthy