Paper: GS – II, Subject: Polity, Topic: Judiciary, Issue: Contempt of court.
Context:
Contempt of court in India protects judicial authority and ensures the smooth administration of justice by penalising acts that undermine courts or obstruct legal proceedings, while allowing fair criticism.
Key Takeaways:
What is Contempt of court?
- In the Indian Judiciary, Contempt refers to the offence of showing disrespect to the dignity or authority of a court.
- Constitutional Provisions: Article 129 of the Constitution says that the Supreme Court shall be the ‘Court of Record’ and it has all the powers of such courts including the power to punish for contempt of itself.
- Article 215 conferred a corresponding power on the High Courts.
- The Contempt of Courts Act 1971 was established following the recommendations of the H.N. Sanyal Committee.
Contempt of Court Types
- The Contempt of Courts Act 1971 categorises contempt into two types: Civil Contempt, which involves the willful disobedience of court orders, and Criminal Contempt, which includes actions that undermine the authority or dignity of the court.
- Civil Contempt: Section 2(b) of Contempt of Court Act 1971 defines civil contempt as wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court
- Criminal Contempt: Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Court Act 1971 defines criminal contempt as the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which:
- scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
- prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
- interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
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