Delhi HC directs film director Vivek Agnihotri to appear in person in contempt case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed film director Vivek Agnihotri to appear in person on April 10 in a matter related to a tweet that he posted in 2018 about Justice S Muralidhar who had quashed the transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha.
The division bench comprising justices Sidharth Mridul and Talwant Singh directed Agnihotri to appear in person on April 10. The bench also took note of the order of December 6 when Agnihotri was directed to appear before the court.
On the last hearing on December 6, Agnihotri tendered his unconditional apology for the tweets he posted in 2018.
The bench had asked Agnihotri to remain present in the next hearing.
This contempt case was initiated by the court sou moto against Agnihotri and Reserve Bank of India Governor S Gurumurthy.
The counsel for Agnihotri submitted that Agnihotri is down with a fever and thus was not able to appear before the court.
Thereafter, the bench asked him to appear physically on the next date.
Agnihotri's counsel had submitted through an affidavit that the tweets were deleted by his client.
On the other hand, amicus curiae opposed the submission saying that the tweets were deleted by the social platform Twitter, not by him.
The bench had said, "We are asking him to remain present because he is contemnor. Does he have any difficulty if he has to express remorse in person? The remorse cannot always be express by way of an affidavit." (ANI)