Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Contempt of Court)

Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Contempt of Court

Taking up the 2009 contempt of court case against lawyer Prashant Bhushan, the Supreme Court said that there is a thin line between free speech and contempt.
Supreme Court registry rejected the impleadment application filed by 16 civil society activists in the contempt case against Bhushan, citing the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of Justice C.S. Karnan, in which the court had held that contempt is a matter strictly between the court and the alleged contemnor.
The case pertains to an interview given by Bhushan to Tehelka where he alleged that half of past 16 Chief Justices of India (CJIs) were corrupt.

Provisions in India, the concept of Contempt of Court is defined in Section 2(a) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 which has broadly describe it as civil contempt or criminal contempt.
There are three Articles in the Constitution of India which talk about the Contempt of Court and these are Article 129 and Article 142(2) and Article 215. ( Article 129 - Supreme Court to be a court of record.— The Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court including the power to punish for contempt of itself. ( Article 215 - High Courts to be courts of record. —Every High Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court including the power to punish for contempt of itself. ( Article 142 (2) - Subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by Parliament, the Supreme Court shall, as respects the whole of the territory of India, have all and every power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself
Constitution itself has not defined contempt of court.

Civil Contempt: Section 2(a) of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971 states Civil Contempt as wilful disobedience to the order, decree, direction, any judgment or writ of the Court by any person or willfully breach of undertakings by a person given to a Court. ( Since Civil Contempt deprives a party of the benefit for which the order was made so these are the offences essential of private nature. ( In other words, a person who is entitled to get the benefit of the court order, this wrong is generally done to this person.
Criminal Contempt: According to Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971, Criminal Contempt is Defined as (i) the publication of any matter by words, spoken or written, or by gesture, or by signs, or by visible representation or (ii) doing of any act which includes: ( Scandalize or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of any court, or ( Biasness, interferes or tends to interfere with the due course of any type of Judicial proceedings, or ( Obstructs or tends to obstruct, interfere or tend to interfere with the administration of justice in any manner.

Section 12(1) of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971 states that a person who alleged with the Contempt of Court can be punished with simple imprisonment and this imprisonment can extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees or can be of both type punishment.
However, an accused may be discharged or the punishment that was awarded to him maybe remitted on the condition that if he makes an apology and this apology should satisfy the court then only he can be exempted from the punishment of Contempt of Court.
Explanation of this sentence is that if the accused made an apology in the bona fide then this apology shall not be rejected on the ground that it is conditional or qualified.