Delhi HC notice to S Gurumurthy in contempt plea by DHCBA for tweets against Muralidhar J.

The Delhi High Court yesterday issued notice in a contempt petition filed by the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) against Chartered Accountant and Economic Analyst S Gurumurthy for making scandalous allegations against Justice S Muralidhar..Gurumurthy, who is also the editor of the Tamil magazine ‘Thuglak’, had through his tweets asked whether Justice Muralidhar had been a junior to Karti Chidambaram’s father and Senior Advocate P Chidambaram..The said tweets were posted hours after the Division Bench of Justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta had granted interim relief to Karti Chidambaram in a matter against the Enforcement Directorate..The Bench of Justices Muralidhar and Mehta thereafter had taken suo moto cognizance of the tweets and had called the filing counsel in the case to discuss the issue after the matter was brought to its notice by some judges of Tamil Nadu..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..The present contempt petition filed through Bar Association Secretary Amit Sharma states that,.“….the said tweet was made with the malafide intention of lowering the authority of this Hon’ble Court and to shake the confidence of the general public in it.” .It is further stated that Gurumurthy’s intention was to cast aspersions on the judge for which he is liable to be punished for the criminal contempt of court..The Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and PS Teji sought the response of S Gurumurthy and listed the matter for hearing on July 12..Meanwhile, Gurumurthy has already responded to this development on Twitter by casting aspersions on the petitioner while maintaining that his tweet was not against the judge. Below is his response on twitter..Image of Gurumurthy taken from here..Read the petition below.