Law panel is against amending ‘dreaded’ contempt of court law

The Law Commission is not in favour of restricting the contempt of court law as it has the potential to “lessen the respect for courts”. The Commission has recommended that there is no need to amend India’s dreaded contempt of court law. According to the Law Commission report, restricting it could damage the reputation of the judiciary and threaten the country’s democratic system. 

On March 8, the Government had asked the commission to examine if amendments can be made in the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, in order to remove the concept of criminal contempt and “restrict” the Act to civil contempt only.

 “The law for contempt, with power of imposing punishment, ensures respect for the courts in the eyes of the public by guaranteeing sanction against conduct which might assail the honour of the courts. Indeed, the courts must be able to discharge their functions without fear or favour,” the report said.

Given the widespread use of the law, the commission is of the opinion that the crime of ‘scandalising the court’ should continue to exist in India, even though it acts as a chilling deterrent on criticising the courts. Statistics show “glaring occurrences of criminal contempt”. In all, 568 criminal contempt cases and 96,310 civil contempt cases were pending in the high courts between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017.

According to the law, contempt in India is divided into civil and criminal contempt. While civil contempt is applicable when a person wilfully disobeys any order of a court, criminal contempt entails ‘interfering’ with the administration of justice - for instance, interrupting a court hearing by singing obnoxiously or ‘scandalising’ the court or ‘lowering its authority’.   It was the provision of ‘scandalising’ the court that was being examined by the commission in the 71-page report.

The issue was referred to the commission by the government in the light of Britain - from whom India inherited the law - recommending in 2012 “that scandalising the court should cease to exist as an offence or as a form of contempt”.

However, the Commission concluded that in Britain, the provision was not used after 1930, making the law redundant, the official said. In India, on the other hand, the number of pending criminal cases under the contempt of court act runs into thousands, with the Odisha High Court alone having as many as 104 criminal cases as on 30 June 2017.