We are not peevish about being called names: Delhi High Court in Anand Ranganathan contempt of court case

While hearing the contempt of court case against author Anand Ranganathan, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday remarked that it will not tolerate anything that obstructs the functioning of the justice system. .A Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Anish Dayal said,"We welcome just and fair criticism. If you have just and fair criticism of courts, you are free to... (but) what can't be appreciated is something that we can't say lowers the majesty of court, but obstructs functioning of the court, the system. That we will not tolerate...We are not peevish about being called names but we are very concerned when the system is obstructed.".The Court was hearing a suo motu contempt case initiated against Ranganathan and others for their tweets on former Delhi High Court judge and former Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar for granting bail to activist Gautam Navlakha.Apart from Ranganathan, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri as well as RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy were made party to the case. However, the latter two were discharged after they tendered unconditional apologies to the Court..In the previous hearing, Ranganthan had told the Court that he is a free speech absolutist and that his remarks were not directed at the judge's decision to grant bail to Navlakha, but rather expressed his opposition to the power of contempt of court. He added that he would file an affidavit to clarify his position..Advocate J Sai Deepak appeared for Ranganathan today and informed the Court that he has filed an affidavit clarifying his position.Deepak added that what Ranganathan had said was not a comment on the specific facts of the case, but was general in nature.He stated that Ranganathan has no skin in the game and that tendering an unconditional apology in the matter would amount to acceptance of the allegations of contemptuous conduct..Meanwhile, counsel appearing for the magazine against whom contempt proceedings were also initiated told the Bench that he has already filed an affidavit tendering an unconditional apology and the article has also been taken down..The Bench then proceeded to list the matter for further consideration on November 9, 2023.