New Delhi: Film Director Vivek Agnihotri has tendered an unconditional apology before the Delhi High Court for his remarks against Justice S Muralidhar of being biased after the latter ordered the quashing of house arrest and transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case, reported Live Law.
The court had initiated suo motu criminal contempt proceedings in the matter in 2018.
Justice S Muralidhar is the current Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.
A division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh allowed an application moved by Agnihotri seeking permission to appear and participating in the suo motu proceedings. This comes after the court had earlier directed to proceed ex parte against Agnihotri, Swarajya news portal and Anand Ranganathan.
During the hearing Tuesday, the court was informed by the amicus curiae that there is a variance in the affidavit filed by Agnihotri and the response of Twitter.
As per the amicus curiae, while Agnihotri claimed that he had taken down the tweets, Twitter in its response said that the tweets were taken down by the microblogging platform.
Agnihotri's counsel told court that he will take appropriate instructions as to the date on which the tweets were blocked.
The court thus adjourned the hearing to March 16, 2023 asking him to remain present in person on the said date.