Panel rejects bid to dilute contempt

Hyderabad: The attempt of the Centre to amend the Contempt of Courts Act failed as the Law Commission of India observed that curtailing the scope of contempt to only include ‘wilful disobedience of directions/judgment of Court’ seems undesirable because of the continuing need for deterrence against contemptuous elements.

It appears that in view of the increasing number of contempt proceedings against the executive apparatus of state governments across the country, the Centre in March 2018 asked the Law Commission of India to examine an amendment to the Contempt of Courts Act 1971.

According to the Supreme Court annual report of 2016-17 published in November 2017, there are nearly one lakh cases, including 7,902 contempt cases, in the Hyderabad High Court pending as of June 30, 2017 against officials and private individuals. According to lawyers, 90 per cent of contempt cases are against government officials which are in the nature of civil contempt.

The Hyderabad High Court had imposed sentences against a dozen officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana between March 2017 and May 2018 for wilfully disobeying the court's orders.

According to legal experts the Constitution of India designates the Supreme Court and High Courts as Courts of Record.  

It further grants the Supreme Court and every High Court the power to punish for contempt of itself.

Article 129 of the Constitution of India, dealing with the said power of the Supreme Court, provides that “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 vests similar power with the High Courts.

As per the Annual Report of the Supreme Court the highest number of 25,370 contempt cases are pending in the Allahabad High Court. Madhya Pradesh stands second with 8,257  cases and  Odisha third with 7,973 cases; the Hyderabad High Court comes next with 7,902 cases as of June 30, 2017.

Sarasani Satyam Reddy, senior advocate, said that it is unfortunate that every year there was a considerable increase in the number of contempt cases against the executive authorities of both Telugu states.

He explained that as per the Supreme Court annual report, there are 6,036 civil contempt cases pending in the Hyderabad High Court as on July 1, 2016 and later 3,251 cases were instituted and 3,257 cases were disposed of either by closing the proceedings or imposing punishment against contemnors.

Stating that the judges should also take a serious note of the increase in contempt cases, he opined that “The procedure which is following by courts across the country is not necessary in punishing the contemnor as there is no procedure envisaged in the 1971 Act. If a judge feels there is prima facie in the case, he has power to punish the contemnor after recording his explanation and there is no need to involve the government pleaders in the process.”

Many times the High Court also expressed its displeasure at the apathy of the authorities in implementing the court orders and also disobeying the orders, succumbing to political pressure.

Kiran Tirumalasetti who had succeeded in the contempt case against G. Veerapandian, former commissioner of Greater Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, and Krishna Lanka police inspector P. Chandrashekar, said, “We often have a tough time convincing officials to honour the court orders which are issued in urgent matters like demolitions and admissions in educational institutions and also allowing candidates for recruitment tests based on the court orders. The officials always try to avoid the orders on the pretext of reaching at the eleventh hour, ignoring the consequences of contempt.”