Contempt of Court

Contempt of Court

By Pankaj | October 20, 2024

With the establishment of High courts under High Court  Act, 1861 High courts were given power to punish the contempt on itself. Therefore any publication/gesture showing disrespect towards courts was not tolerated. Even today also the contempt of laws have the imprint of British laws. After the adoption of constitution the contempt of court was made as the exception to article 19(1) which talks about Freedom of Speech and expression. Article 129 gives power to the Supreme Court to Punish it’s contempt and same power is given to high courts by Article 215. Finally contempt of court act 1971 was passed and thus became a codified law. There are two kinds of Contempt of Court according to Contempt of Court act 1971.Civil contempt and Criminal Contempt. Civil contempt occurs when someone knowingly violates or disobeys the order given by court. Criminal contempt consists of three types.(1)Words, written or spoken signs and actions that “scandalise” or tends to scandalise or “lower” or tends to “lower”the authority of any court.(2) Prejudices or interferes with any judicial proceeding and(3)Interferes with or obstructs the administration of Justice. Personal allegations against judges are also viewed as contempt of court in certain cases.It is punishable with simple imprisonment for a term up to six months and/or a fine upto 2000 rupees

Defenses given under under contempt of court act 1971:

  • Fair and accurate reporting of Judicial Proceedings.
  • Fair criticism on the judicial order of case which is heard and disposed of.
  • Truth said in public interest in a bona-fide manner.(Included by amendment in contempt of court act 1971 on 2006).
  • Innocent publication without knowledge of pendency of case.
  • If the order was impossible to be obeyed.

In Baradanath Mishra v. Registar of Orissa High court, the court held that the intention of contempt jurisdiction is not to uphold the personal dignity of the judges. The judgement in this case also laid down certain parameters to decide whether a particular action will amount to contempt or not. The court said that common form of contempt is the vilification of Judge. The court has to ask whether the vilification is of the judge as a judge or it is the vilification of judge as an individual. If the latter is the case, then the judge is left to sought relief with his private remedies.  If former is the case then the court will proceed with scrupulous care in cases that are clear and beyond a reasonable doubt. Recently there was a controversy regarding two tweets made by senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan. In one of the tweets he  highlighted about the role of supreme court and especially last 4 Chief Justice of India in the destruction of democracy. In another tweet he  posted a picture of Chief Justice of India Boble criticising him for riding a 50 lakh bike without mask while keeping Supreme Court in lockdown mode denying citizens fundamental access to justice. Advocate Rajiv Dhawan(Counsel of Prashant Bhushan)argued that the tweets were fair criticism made in bona fide manner in the interest of public and does not tends to scandalise the court. Prashant Bhushan was held guilty of contempt of court by 3 judge bench lead by justice Arun Mishra.Justice. Arun Mishra held that in the zeal of overdoing for public interest, there is a lakshman Rekha(Limiting Line) which no one should cross. So we can say that there is a need for balance and restraint which needs to be kept in mind while deciding such a pivotal question according to the facts and circumstances of each case.

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