The Delhi High Court on Wednesday closed criminal contempt of court proceedings initiated against scientist Anand Ranganathan. .A suo motu contempt case was initiated in October 2019 following defamatory posts were made by some Twitter (now X) users and online portals against former Delhi High Court judge and former Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice S Muralidhar after he granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha.Ranganathan was added as an accused later. .A division bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain closed the proceedings today after noting that the original contemnors – RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, online portal Dirshtikone and others - have already been discharged in the case and that Ranganthan did not comment on Justice Muralidhar but merely supported Gurumurthy and others’ right to speak on the issue.The bench observed that continuing with proceedings against Ranganathan would be a sheer wastage of the Court's time.“Since the (persons initially accused of levelling) contemptuous allegations have already been discharged, this is a sheer wastage of time to take any action against the rest of the contemnors. We hereby close the proceedings and registry is directed to consign the file to their record room,” the bench ordered..The Court passed the order after advocate J Sai Deepak appeared for Ranganathan and argued that Ranganathan is a free speech absolutist and that he has not said that he agrees with Gurumurthy or Drishtikone's article. "He (Ranganathan) has taken a position that he Gurumurthy may be right or wrong but he is entitled to take that position. Ranganathan has not commented on the conduct of the judge. There is nothing which he (Ranganathan) has said or done which interferes with administration of justice. He is basically a bystander who is supporting someone's right to raise his voice," Deepak stated.Ranganathan was present in the court in-person. .We are not peevish about being called names: Delhi High Court in Anand Ranganathan contempt of court case.Meanwhile, the Court also discharged Swarajya magazine in the case after it tendered an unconditional apology..Notably, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri was discharged as well in the case last year after he tendered an unconditional apology..The suo motu criminal contempt case was initiated in October 2019 after Drishtikone published an article making several allegations against Justice Muralidhar as he had granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha.Gurumurthy tweeted the article and commented on it.Agnihotri and Ranganathan were made a party to the case subsequently.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday closed criminal contempt of court proceedings initiated against scientist Anand Ranganathan. .A suo motu contempt case was initiated in October 2019 following defamatory posts were made by some Twitter (now X) users and online portals against former Delhi High Court judge and former Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice S Muralidhar after he granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha.Ranganathan was added as an accused later. .A division bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain closed the proceedings today after noting that the original contemnors – RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, online portal Dirshtikone and others - have already been discharged in the case and that Ranganthan did not comment on Justice Muralidhar but merely supported Gurumurthy and others’ right to speak on the issue.The bench observed that continuing with proceedings against Ranganathan would be a sheer wastage of the Court's time.“Since the (persons initially accused of levelling) contemptuous allegations have already been discharged, this is a sheer wastage of time to take any action against the rest of the contemnors. We hereby close the proceedings and registry is directed to consign the file to their record room,” the bench ordered..The Court passed the order after advocate J Sai Deepak appeared for Ranganathan and argued that Ranganathan is a free speech absolutist and that he has not said that he agrees with Gurumurthy or Drishtikone's article. "He (Ranganathan) has taken a position that he Gurumurthy may be right or wrong but he is entitled to take that position. Ranganathan has not commented on the conduct of the judge. There is nothing which he (Ranganathan) has said or done which interferes with administration of justice. He is basically a bystander who is supporting someone's right to raise his voice," Deepak stated.Ranganathan was present in the court in-person. .We are not peevish about being called names: Delhi High Court in Anand Ranganathan contempt of court case.Meanwhile, the Court also discharged Swarajya magazine in the case after it tendered an unconditional apology..Notably, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri was discharged as well in the case last year after he tendered an unconditional apology..The suo motu criminal contempt case was initiated in October 2019 after Drishtikone published an article making several allegations against Justice Muralidhar as he had granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha.Gurumurthy tweeted the article and commented on it.Agnihotri and Ranganathan were made a party to the case subsequently.
