‘Will tender an unconditional apology’: Arnab Goswami tells Delhi HC in R K Pachauri contempt case

“It is ordered accordingly,” the court said.

The counsel appearing for The Economic Times and Raghav Ohri also informed court that they have already filed an affidavit tendering an unconditional apology. Meanwhile, the counsel appearing for former NDTV promoter Prannoy Roy said that he will take instructions on tendering an apology.

Pachauri, who passed away in 2020, had moved the high court claiming that media houses “deliberately and contemptuously” disobeyed the court’s earlier orders restricting them from publishing the claims against him pertaining to sexual harassment allegations. The plea said that Pachauri was “being subjected to an unfair and illegal media trial” and that the reports were defamatory and prejudicial.

In May 2022 last year, a Delhi court said that no stigma can be attached to Pachauri in the alleged sexual harassment case lodged against him by a former colleague as the prosecution could not prove its case before his death.

Additional Sessions Judge Mohinder Virat passed the order in an application filed by Pachauri’s son seeking leave to continue the revision petition against an order to put him on trial in the case. The revision petition was filed by Pachauri.

Arguing on behalf of Pachauri’s son, lawyer Ashish Dixit had said that allegations made in the complaint have caused stigma on the impeccable reputation of his late father and have caused irreparable loss to the family, The Indian Express had reported.

However, the court said, “In the present case, the revisionist had died before conclusion of the trial against him. As such the prosecution could not prove its case…hence there can be no stigma on the deceased Dr RK Pachauri in the given set of circumstances.”

Pachauri, who was also chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007, passed away on February 13, 2020, after a prolonged cardiac ailment. He was 79.