After receiving an unreserved apology from Lalit Modi for his comments made against the judiciary in social media posts, the Supreme Court on Monday ended the contempt case against the former IPL commissioner.
A bench of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar took note of an affidavit that Mr. Modi had submitted, in which he pledged that he would in no way act in a way that would be inconsistent with the “majesty or dignity of Courts or Indian judiciary” moving forward.
“We accept the apology without conditions. We want to remind the respondent (Mr. Modi) that we would take seriously any attempt he makes in the future to even remotely damage the reputation of the Indian judiciary and courts.
The Court always believes in forgiveness, especially when an apology is extended unconditionally and from the bottom of the heart, thus we accept the apology with open hearts.We close the current proceedings after accepting the apology, the bench declared.
The court stated, “Our only concern was that everyone should respect the institution as a whole.”
The top court severely criticised Mr. Modi on April 13 for his comments on the judiciary and ordered him to publish an unqualified apology on social media and in local newspapers.
It had issued a warning that any repetition of such behaviour would be taken very harshly, pointing out that Mr. Modi is not above the law or the institution.
The top court had also instructed him to submit an affidavit before it apologising and indicating that no such tweets would be made going forward that may even remotely damage the reputation of the Indian courts.
