S Gurumurthy dropped from array of parties in contempt case after offer to retweet author’s unconditional apology

The Delhi High Court today closed the contempt case initiated against S Gurumurthy in connection with the Gautam Navlakha order passed by Justice S Muralidhar last year..Gurumurthy was dropped from the list of respondents in the case by a Division Bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal after he offered to retweet the unconditional apology tendered by the author of the offending article titled ‘Why has Delhi High Court Justice Muralidhar’s relationship with Gautam Navlakha not been disclosed?’.The contemptuous article was published in a blog called Drishtikone, after Justice Muralidhar passed an order setting aside the transit remand order against activist Gautam Navlakha in October last year..The Court recorded,.“Mr [Mahesh] Jethmalani has clarified that S Gurumurthy would also mention that the author had tendered an unconditional apology to Court and withdrawn the article against Hon’ble Mr Justice S Muralidhar. .The statement is accepted by the Court and S Gurumurthy is bound by the same.”.It has been Gurumurthy’s case in the contempt proceeding that he could not be held guilty under the Contempt of Court Act as he had merely retweeted the offending article without any endorsement or comments..The Court today also issued fresh notice to other respondents in the case, which include Vivek Agnihotri and Anand Ranganathan..Fresh notice to these parties were issued after Amicus Curiae, Senior Advocate Arvind Nigam informed the Court that the parties have been duly served but have chosen to not file their response..The author of the offending article, Desh Kapoor, had tendered an apology to the Court in August this year, and was consequently dropped as a party..The matter will be heard next by the Registrar Court on November 27..S Gurumurthy was represented by Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani with Advocates Ravi Sharma and Mohit Mudgal..Earlier last year, the Delhi High Court had taken suo motu notice of certain tweets by S Gurumurthy relating to the decision of the Court to grant interim relief to Karti Chidambaram..Gurumurthy, who is the editor of the magazine ‘Thuglak’, through his tweets, had asked whether Justice Muralidhar had been a junior to Karti Chidambaram’s father and Senior Advocate P Chidambaram..Read the Order: