On December 6 last year, the court asked the filmmaker to "show remorse in person" after he tendered an unconditional apology through an affidavit. The Delhi High Court Monday discharged filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri in a suo moto criminal contempt proceeding initiated by the court after he tendered an unconditional apology and expressed his remorse for allegedly retweeting a post alleging bias against former HC judge Justice S Muralidhar. In October 2018, a division bench led by Justice S Muralidhar, who was a Delhi high court judge then, freed activist Gautam Navlakha, who was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case, from house arrest. On October 5, 2018, Agnihotri had reposted the tweet alleging bias by Justice Muralidhar, who is the current Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court. On Monday, a division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Vikas Mahajan took into consideration the unconditional apology of Agnihotri, who was present in the court. “Mr Vivek Agnihotri the alleged contemnor who is arrayed as Respondent No. 4 is present before the court in person and reiterates his remorse as well as tenders an unconditional apology for the alleged offensive statement made by him on Twitter,” the bench noted. Reading his affidavit tendering the apology, the HC said, “In view of the foregoing and particular circumstance that Mr Vivek Agnihotri has the utmost respect for the institution of the judiciary and did not intend to wilfully offend the majesty of the court, the notice to show cause as to why contempt should not be issued to him is recalled. Mr Vivek Agnihotri is discharged”. The court also cautioned Agnihotri to be careful going forward.

With respect to another criminal contempt case moved by Delhi High Court Bar Association against certain people, including RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, the bench observed it can’t keep “dragging the matter” after noting that Gurumurthy had appeared before the court and tendered an apology. “Every citizen should know that you must be careful. We invite just and fair criticism. But the fact is…every proceeding runs its course. He has already filed an affidavit and appeared before this court,” the bench said. Justice Mridul further remarked, “Justice Ranjan Gogoi has rendered a decision on contempt which says that courts do not punish for contempt to secure our dignity. Surely our dignity is founded on a stronger foundation”. At this point, senior advocate Rakesh Tikku, appearing for the Association, said if the alleged contemnor has complied with the previous orders of the court then he may file an affidavit to that effect. However, the court said that a “peaceful quietus” has to be given to the matter. In September 2022, the high court had decided to proceed ‘ex parte’ against Agnihotri as well as M/s News & Views, Anand Ranganathan and Swarajya Magazine, among others, who did not appear in the criminal contempt case despite notice being served to them. Advocate J Sai Deepak, appearing for Ranganathan, said his client will be present on the next date of the hearing after which the high court listed the matter for hearing on May 24.