A legal Study on Contempt of Court

ABSTRACT

Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the offence of being disobedient to or discourteous towards a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the court. Contempt of court is any behavior or wrongdoing that conflicts with or challenges the authority, integrity, and superiority of the court. These acts might include failure to comply with requests, tampering, withholding evidence, interruption of proceedings, or defiance. These wrongful acts may be committed by attorneys, officers of the court, court personnel, jurors, witnesses, protestors, or any party privy to a court proceeding. The distinction between making an allegation against a particular Judge/Court and the Judiciary in general has always been blurred by the Court. In the A.Roy case, the Bench which issued notice to her said she had attributed motives to a particular Court in her affidavit of harrassing her. In the Judgment, however the Pattanaik Sethi Bench held that she was guilty of contempt, as her affidavit had defamed the entire Judiciary. The researcher think it to be self-evident that no Civilised jurisdiction can get by without laws dealing with contempt of court. Difficulties of definition cannot relieve the law-maker of doing everything possible to safeguard the due administration of justice.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Particulars	Page No.
CHAPTER-01 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction	01
1.2 Aim of the research	02
1.3 Importance of research	03
1.4 Research Question	03
1.5 Scope and Limitation of research	03
1.6 Methodology of research	04
1.7 Method used in this thesis	05
CHAPTER-02 THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW OF CONTEMPT
2.1 Introduction	06
2.2 Contempt and freedom of the press	08
2.3 The Contempt of Courts Act, 1926	09
CHAPTER 3 CONTEMPT OF COURT  CRIMINAL AND CIVIL
3.1 Introduction	10
3.2 Criminal Contempt	11
3.3 Civil Contempt	13
3.4 Courts with contempt jurisdiction	13
CHAPTER-04 CONTEMPT IN THE FACE OF THE COURT MISBEHAVIOUR IN COURT
4.1 Introduction	14
4.2 The summary procedure	15
4.3 Tape recorders in court	15
4.4 Photographs and sketches in court	16
CHAPTER 5 CONTEMPT BY PUBLICATION
5.1 Introduction	17
5.2 The meaning of "prejudice"	17
5.3 The problem of "gagging writs"	18
5.4 The test of liability	19
5.5 Mensrea	19
5.6 The means of publication	19
5.7 The timing of publication	20
5.8 Responsibility for a newspaper or magazine	21
5.9 Responsibility of persons engaged in other media	22
5.10 Defence of innocent publication and distribution	22
5.11 Defence of "public benefit"	23
5.12 Reporting court proceedings	23
5.13 The secrets of the jury-room		23
5.14 Protection of sources of information		24
Chapter 6 Scandalizing the court
6.1 The scope of the offence		25
Chapter 7 Acts which interfere with or obstruct persons having duties to discharge in court
7.1 The rationale of the offence		27
7.2 Victimization of jurors, witnesses and other persons after the conclusion of proceedings		27
7.3 Litigants		28
Chapter-08 'Civil contempt' – disobedience of court orders
8.1 Standard of proof		29
8.2 The distinction between civil and criminal contempt’s		29
8.3 Ways in which civil contempt may be committed		30
Chapter 9 Miscellaneous related matters
9.1 The institution of proceedings		32
9.2 Legal Aid		32
Chapter 10 Summary of recommendations
10.1 Summary of Recommendations		33
Bibliography		36