HC initiates contempt proceedings against Chennai journalist Gurumurthy, editor of 'Thuglak'

The court order came after receiving a letter from advocate Rajshekhar Rao, who sought contempt action against the scribe and requested to remove the tweets and online video against the judge.

The Delhi High Court on Monday initiated contempt proceedings against Swaminathan Gurumurthy, Editor of a Chennai-based Tamil weekly news magazine "Thuglak", for his tweets against sitting judge Justice S. Muralidhar.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Yogesh Khanna has asked Gurumurthy, who is also a Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s part-time non-official Director, to file a response on the contempt proceedings.

The court has listed the matter for further hearing on December 11.

The court order came after receiving a letter from advocate Rajshekhar Rao, who sought contempt action against the scribe and requested to remove the tweets and online video against the judge.

Gurumurthy had shared a tweet alleging bias by Justice Muralidhar while delivering an order on October 1.

On October 1, a division bench headed by Justice Muralidhar set aside a lower court order allowing the Maharashtra Police to take Navlakha to Pune and said Navlakha's detention had exceeded 24 hours which was "untenable" in law.

(With inputs from agencies.)