04-11-2020 | 15:52 PM
Contempt of Court
Context:
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal recently declined his consent to initiate a contempt case against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.
Issue:
The Andhra Pradesh CM had recently written a letter to the CJI S.A. Bobde, alleging the Andhra Pradesh HC was being used to destabilise and topple his democratically elected government.
Following this, a lawyer had written a letter to AG seeking his consent to initiate contempt proceedings against CM and his advisor.
Contempt of Court
The basic idea of contempt of court is to punish those who do not respect the orders of the courts and scandalize the courts that lowers their dignity and interferes with the administration of justice.
There are two types of contempt of court:
(i) Civil Contempt: It is the willful disobedience of a court order or judgment or willful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
(ii) Criminal Contempt: It is through the written or spoken words or any act that scandalizes the court or lowers its authority or interferes with the due course of administration of justice.
Constitutional provisions
Articles 129 and 215 of the Constitution of India empowers the Supreme Court and High Court respectively to punish people for their respective contempt.
Section 10 of the Contempt of Courts Act of 1971 defines the power of the High Court to punish contempt of its subordinate courts.
nota bene
There is no requirement of Attorney General’s consent for initiating a criminal contempt proceeding in Supreme Court as the Constitution of India has given it the wide-range power to issue notice and punish under contempt proceedings.
