The Delhi High Court concluded its criminal contempt of court proceedings against scientist Anand Ranganathan on Wednesday.

Back in 2019, a suo motu contempt case was launched due to defamatory posts made by certain Twitter (now X) users and online portals. These posts targeted former Delhi High Court judge and former Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court, Justice S Muralidhar, following his decision to grant bail to activist Gautam Navlakha. Ranganathan was later implicated as an accused in the case.

Today, a division bench, comprising Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain, concluded the proceedings, observing that the initial individuals charged with contempt—RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, online portal Dirshtikone, and others—had already been cleared in the case. The bench also noted that Ranganathan had not directed any remarks at Justice Muralidhar but had simply advocated for Gurumurthy and others' freedom of expression on the matter.

The bench noted that pursuing proceedings against Ranganathan would amount to a significant waste of the Court's time.

“Since the contemptuous allegations have already been discharged, this is a sheer wastage of time to take any action against the rest of the contemnors. '', the Bench said.

The Court issued the order following advocate J. Sai Deepak's representation on behalf of Ranganathan. Deepak argued that Ranganathan stands as a proponent of free speech absolutism and clarified that Ranganathan did not explicitly endorse Gurumurthy or Drishtikone's article.