We are all gentlemen, but we are not timid either, Delhi HC in S Gurumurthy contempt case

We are all gentlemen, but we are not timid either, said the Delhi High Court today while hearing the contempt petition filed by the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) against Chartered Accountant and Economic Analyst, S Gurumurthy..The matter was listed for hearing before a Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal..Appearing for Gurumurthy, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani raised two threshold objections against the contempt petition moved by the DHCBA..He informed the Court that Justice S Muralidhar had himself taken cognizance of Gurumurthy’s tweet and applied his judicial mind when he passed a judicial order to clarify that he was in fact never a junior to P Chidambaram. Therefore, no fresh proceeding could be initiated against Gurumurthy..He further raised an objection under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act to argue that in the absence of a notified law officer for the Delhi High Court to initiate a contempt proceedings, the present contempt petition ought to fail..Taking note of the order passed by Justice Muralidhar, Justice Mridul stated,.“We must protect all of us together.. maintain dignity of the court. (Else) we will have people making unsavory allegations to pressurize the bench to transfer the case.”.Justice Mridul went on to suggest that Gurumurthy tender an unequivocal and conditional apology to put an end to the matter.. “The ball is in your Court. We do not want to hear that you wanted to make amends and we did not give you the time“, he said..To this, Jethmalani submitted that Gurumurthy has already tendered a “categorical apology” in his pleadings..Justice Mridul, however, stated that it was not enough..“We are giving you are an opportunity to make amends. We cannot infer (an unequivocal and unconditional apology) from your pleadings. Are you saying that you would not tender an unequivocal and unconditional apology? Let us not indulge in semantics.”.“I cannot go beyond what my client authorises”, Jethmalani replied..“Alright, we’ll hear it on merits then”, said Justice Mridul. He further observed,.“The manner in which the expression and comment are made (on Twitter) with respect to pending cases is painful. (Judiciary) is subjected to pressure. It is alarming…We are not imposing any fetters on free speech and fair criticism, but do not attribute motive.”.DHCBA President and Senior Advocate Kirti Uppal argued that the Bar is one of the stakeholders in the judicial system, and that Gurumurthy’s tweet not only scandalizes the judiciary, but also the entire legal system..Meanwhile, Standing Counsel for the Delhi Government Rahul Mehra has been asked to file his response to the Section 15 objection raised by Gurumurthy..When a Division Bench led by Justice S Muralidhar earlier granted bail to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media bribery case, Gurumurthy had tweeted asking if Muralidhar J had been a junior to Karti Chidambaram’s father and Senior Advocate P Chidambaram..The Bench of Justices Muralidhar and Mehta thereafter had taken suo motu cognizance of the tweets. The Court, however, did not initiate contempt proceedings against Gurumurthy but had asked the Centre as to whether such posts can scandalize the legal profession and whether any remedial action needed to be taken. Gurumurthy, on his part, had deleted the controversial tweets..Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani was assisted by Advocates Ravi Sharma and Mohit Mudgal..The Court will continue to hear the arguments in the matter on December 5.