HC accepts unconditional apology of author of article against sitting judge

The Delhi High Court Tuesday accepted the "unconditional apology" tendered by the author of an article, which invited contempt proceedings against him for scandalous remarks against Justice S Muralidhar.

The article of the author, an American citizen, was published in the blog 'Drishtikone' last year.

The author tendered the apology before of bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, which accepted it and directed him to be careful in future.

His counsel submitted before the court that the author holds Justice Muralidhar in high esteem regards.

The court discharged the author from the case and deleted him as a party in the contempt proceedings.

The court, on its own, has also initiated contempt proceedings against Swaminathan Gurumurthy, the editor of the weekly 'Thuglak' magazine, who was also asked whether he would apology for his tweets against the sitting judge.

He is also a part-time director of the Reserve Bank of India.

After the high court division bench headed by Justice S Muralidhar passed order on October 1, last year, releasing rights activists Gautam Navlakha from house arrest in the Koregaon-Bhima violence case, Gurumurthy had tweeted alleging bias by Justice Muralidhar.

The high court, which took up the matter after receiving a letter from advocate Rajshekhar Rao who sought contempt action against the scribe, had said the tweets and online video making allegations against the judge be taken down.

Rao, in his letter, has stated that the tweet was a deliberate attempt to attack a sitting high court judge.

In March last year, the high court had dubbed as "mischievous" certain tweets by the journalist in connection with its decision granting interim protection from arrest to Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case.