S Gurumurthy exercises right to defend himself, DHCBA contempt case to continue

With the Delhi High Court deciding to further proceed with Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA)’s contempt petition against Economic Analyst S Gurumurthy, it appears that the Court has not received the “unconditional and unequivocal apology” that it sought from him..As decided last week, Gurmurthy today appeared before a Division Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal. The judges and the alleged contemnor, along with the lawyers, then proceeded towards chambers..After the parties re-appeared, the Court adjourned further hearing in the matter on the request of counsel appearing for Gurumurthy, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, till January next year. The Court also recorded that DHCBA President Kirti Uppal has completed his submissions on behalf of the petitioner. The case would now proceed further with Jethmalani putting forth his submissions on the next date of hearing..On the last date of hearing, the Court had suggested that if Gurumurthy was willing to appear in person to apologize, the matter could be put to an end. The Court had, however, clarified that if Gurumurthy chose to exercise his right to defend himself, the case would proceed on merits..While Jethmalani clarified that Gurumurthy firmly believes that his conduct could not be said to be in contempt of court, he nonetheless accepted the Court’s proposal and agreed to appear before the Bench on December 11..Jethmalani has time and again during the proceedings expressed his inability to “go beyond what he has been authorized (by his client)” and tender an unconditional and unequivocal apology in the matter. He was assisted by Advocates Ravi Sharma and Mohit Mudgal..It is Gurumurthy’s stance that the tweet in question was merely a question which was borne out of a statement made by a “very credible journalist” to him. Since the statement was merely a question, it would not amount to contempt of court..Gurumurthy has maintained that a “categorical apology” has already been tendered in his pleadings. The Court has, however, refused to accept the same, as it found that the apology was conditional on the tweet in question actually amounting to contempt..When a Division Bench led by Justice S Muralidhar earlier granted bail to Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media bribery case, Gurumurthy had tweeted asking if Muralidhar J had been a junior to Karti Chidambaram’s father and Senior Advocate P Chidambaram..The Bench of Justices Muralidhar and IS Mehta thereafter had taken suo motu cognizance of the tweets. 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 DHCBA thereafter initiated contempt proceedings against him..Interestingly, Gurumurthy is facing contempt proceeding before another Division Bench of the High Court as well. The second contempt proceedings were initiated suo motu by the High Court after Gurumurthy shared a tweet suggesting bias on the part of Justice Muralidhar after the judge had passed an order setting aside the transit remand order against activist Gautam Navlakha earlier this year..In that matter, a Division Bench headed by Justice Hima Kohli today directed the parties to file their compliance report/status reports pursuant to the Court’s directions to take down the objectionable content, and listed the matter for further hearing in February next hear..The matter will be next heard on January 9.