Delhi High Court closes contempt of court case against S Gurumurthy for his tweets about Justice S Muralidhar

The Delhi High Court on Thursday discharged RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy in a criminal contempt of court petition filed against him for his tweets against former Delhi High Court judge and current Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, Justice S Muralidhar. .A Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Gaurang Kanth discharged Gurumurthy after noting that he had filed a written reply in the case and appeared in person to express remorse as well. "We accept Mr Gurumurthys’ apology and expression of deep remorse for the subject incident and consider it appropriate to discharge the show cause issued to him in the present contempt petition," the Court ordered. .The case relates to a speculative tweet posted by Gurumurthy, where he asked if Justice Muralidhar had been a junior to former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.A bench led by Justice Muralidhar had taken cognisance of the tweet and clarified that he had never worked as a junior to Chidambaram.The Court further said that it was for the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta (as he then was) and the Bar to consider whether such tweets called for action in accordance with the law.This prompted the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) to file a criminal contempt petition against Gurumurthy. The plea was filed in 2018. .The Court today noted that the matter has been pending for five years and therefore both the sides should put a quietus to the issue. Senior Advocate Rakesh Tiku appeared for the DHCBA and told the Bench that Gurumurthy's reply expressing remorse, can be cited by the Court and the case can be closed. The Bench then cited the same and noted that Gurumurthy had appeared before the Court of his own volition. "We hasten to add that we have not expressed any opinion on the issues of law articulated by the Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the parties and the same are left open for determination in an appropriate proceeding," the Court added. .Justice Mridul also remarked that the Court and judges do not rely on newspaper reports or tweets for dignity and the Court's dignity rests on a more surer footing."Sometimes the cure is worse that the disease. Unnecessarily dragging an honorable judge's the name into all this controversy, reported all the time. Whatever for? Surely, you don't think we rely on newspaper report and tweet for our dignity? Our dignity rests on surer footing. We are not dependent on criticism, fair or unfair, for our dignity."Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani along with advocates Ravi Sharma and Mohit Mudgal appeared for Gurumurthy.