{"id":44755,"date":"2025-06-04T20:27:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T14:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=44755"},"modified":"2025-06-04T20:27:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T14:57:58","slug":"any-law-passed-by-parliament-or-state-legislature-cant-be-held-to-be-contempt-of-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-06-2025\/any-law-passed-by-parliament-or-state-legislature-cant-be-held-to-be-contempt-of-court","title":{"rendered":"Any Law Passed By Parliament Or State Legislature Can&#8217;t Be Held To Be Contempt Of Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Polity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While closing the <strong>2007 Salwa Judum case<\/strong>, the Supreme Court recently observed that any law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature <strong>cannot be held to be an act of contempt of Court.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>SC\u2019s Direction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Every State Legislature has plenary powers to pass an enactment and so long as the said enactment has not been declared to be <strong>ultra vires the Constitution <\/strong>or, in any way, null and void by a constitutional court, the said enactment would have the force of law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The top court affirmed that the legislature can pass a law to nullify the basis of a judgment or amend a struck-down law to align it with a constitutional court&#8217;s ruling.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is the core of the doctrine of separation of powers and must always be acknowledged in a constitutional democracy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About Contempt of the Court<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Definition:<\/strong> It refers to any act or omission that obstructs or interferes with the due administration of justice or shows disrespect to the authority, dignity, and integrity of a court.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Types of Contempt:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Civil Contempt: <\/strong>Wilful disobedience to any judgment, order, direction, or decree of a court, or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Criminal Contempt: <\/strong>Any act that scandalizes or lowers the authority of the court, prejudices or interferes with judicial proceedings, obstructs administration of justice in any other manner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Constitutional and Statutory Basis:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Article 129:<\/strong> Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers to punish for its contempt.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Article 215:<\/strong> High Courts enjoy similar powers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Contempt of Courts Act, 1971:<\/strong> Statutory framework defining and regulating contempt proceedings in India.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Article 142(2):<\/strong> Also empowers the Supreme Court to make orders for the punishment of contempt, subject to any law made by Parliament.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Safeguards:\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Truth as Defence: <\/strong>Post-2006 Amendment, truth can be a valid defence if it is in public interest and made in a bona fide manner.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fair and Reasonable Criticism:<\/strong> Constructive and balanced criticism of judicial decisions is permitted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Apology: <\/strong>A genuine, unqualified apology can often lead to dropping of charges.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Issues and Concerns<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Potential restriction on freedom of speech and expression (Article 19(1)(a))<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Vagueness of definitions, especially &#8220;scandalizing the court,&#8221; which can be subjective.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Potential for misuse to shield the judiciary from legitimate criticism.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The fact that similar laws have been abolished in some countries, like the UK.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Developments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Law Commission 274th Report (2018):<\/strong> Recommended retaining criminal contempt in its current form, citing persistent challenges like non-compliance and erosion of respect for courts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: TH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">While closing the 2007 Salwa Judum case, the Supreme Court recently observed that any law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature cannot be held to be an act of contempt of Court.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Issues and Concerns<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Potential restriction on freedom of speech and expression (Article 19(1)(a))<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Vagueness of definitions, especially &#8220;scandalizing the court,&#8221; which can be subjective.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Potential for misuse to shield the judiciary from legitimate criticism.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The fact that similar laws have been abolished in some countries, like the UK.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-06-2025\/any-law-passed-by-parliament-or-state-legislature-cant-be-held-to-be-contempt-of-court\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44773,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44755\/revisions\/44773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}