Film director Vivek Agnihotri tenders apology to Delhi HC over Gautam Navlakha bail comment
The court deferred the matter for March next year noting the submission of Agnihotri's counsel that the film director shall remain personally present for the next hearing on March 16, 2023 to tender his apology.
Follow"The Kashmir Files" film director Vivek Agnihotri on Tuesday (December 6) extended his apology to Delhi high court for criticising justice S Muralidhar for granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
The apology comes after the Delhi high court decided to proceed ex-parte against Agnihotri and others. Justice Muralidhar was earlier a judge of the Delhi high court and is currently the chief justice of the Orissa high court.
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During his term at the Delhi high court, the case was initiated after Agnihotri and others criticised justice Muralidhar for his alleged bias in granting bail to Navlakha.
On Tuesday, Agnihotri filed an affidavit before a bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh offering unconditional apology for his remarks.
However, the court asked him to come in person for tendering the apology.
"We are asking him (Agnihotri) to remain present because he is the contemnor. Does he have any difficulty if he has to express remorse in person? The remorse cannot always be expressed by way of an affidavit," the bench remarked.
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The court deferred the matter for March next year noting the submission of Agnihotri's counsel that the film director shall remain personally present for the next hearing on March 16, 2023 to tender his apology.
In his affidavit, Agnihotri said that he himself had deleted his tweets against the judge.
Amicus curiae and senior counsel Arvind Nigam pointed out that the stand could be wrong considering Twitter's affidavit in this respect, where the micro-blogging website has stated it had deleted the tweets, rather than Agnihotri himself.
