Thakur tenders unconditional apology in Supreme Court

Thakur, a senior BJP leader and a Member of Parliament from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, was asked by the apex court on July 7 to tender an apology in explicit terms to get relief from the contempt proceedings initiated against him.

"I humbly submit that it was never the intention of the deponent to undermine the majesty of this court and since unintentionally some kind of misinformation and miscommunication has occured, I unhesitatingly tender my unconditional and unequivocal apology to this court," he said in his affidavit filed on Thursday.

The apex court had directed him to file a "one-page short affidavit" tendering an apology while making it clear that it was not going to consider his earlier affidavit of apology.

The apex court had also asked Thakur to be present on July 14 to tender the apology, indicating that it was willing to accept the apology and close the contempt proceedings against Thakur.

Senior advocate P S Patwalia, appearing for Thakur had said that though his client was willing to tender an unconditional apology, he had a very good case on merit through which it can be proved that he did no wrong. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae (friend of court) in the matter, had said if the court was magnanimous in granting pardon to Thakur, then he has nothing to say, but the apology should be unqualified and explicit in terms. The apex court had initiated contempt proceedings against Thakur on January 2 this year for filing a false affidavit regarding writing to the International Cricket Council (ICC) on the issue of BCCI's autonomy. It had slapped Thakur with contempt and perjury notices for filing a false affidavit over writing to the ICC on the issue.