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    Contempt of Courts: Civil Contempt and Its Defences What May Be Pleaded

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    virat singh
    1) Civil contempt involves the willful disobedience of a court order, while criminal contempt involves acts that scandalize or interfere with the court. 2) Defences for civil contempt include proving the disobedience was not willful, showing the order was passed without jurisdiction, arguing the order was vague, and claiming compliance was impossible or the order was not received. 3) The order must not allow for different interpretations and compliance must not depend on determining other facts. Ignorance of a court order is also a valid defense.

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    Contempt of Courts: Civil Contempt and Its Defences What May Be Pleaded

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    virat singh
    159 views16 pages
    1) Civil contempt involves the willful disobedience of a court order, while criminal contempt involves acts that scandalize or interfere with the court. 2) Defences for civil contempt include proving the disobedience was not willful, showing the order was passed without jurisdiction, arguing the order was vague, and claiming compliance was impossible or the order was not received. 3) The order must not allow for different interpretations and compliance must not depend on determining other facts. Ignorance of a court order is also a valid defense.

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    1) Civil contempt involves the willful disobedience of a court order, while criminal contempt involves acts that scandalize or interfere with the court. 2) Defences for civil contempt include proving the disobedience was not willful, showing the order was passed without jurisdiction, arguing the order was vague, and claiming compliance was impossible or the order was not received. 3) The order must not allow for different interpretations and compliance must not depend on determining other facts. Ignorance of a court order is also a valid defense.

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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    159 views16 pages

    Contempt of Courts: Civil Contempt and Its Defences What May Be Pleaded

    Uploaded by

    virat singh
    1) Civil contempt involves the willful disobedience of a court order, while criminal contempt involves acts that scandalize or interfere with the court. 2) Defences for civil contempt include proving the disobedience was not willful, showing the order was passed without jurisdiction, arguing the order was vague, and claiming compliance was impossible or the order was not received. 3) The order must not allow for different interpretations and compliance must not depend on determining other facts. Ignorance of a court order is also a valid defense.

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    of 16

    Contempt of Courts

    Civil Contempt and Its Defences what may be


    Pleaded
    Categorisation of Contempt of
    Court
    As per the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 the
    category is of 2 types-
    • Civil Contempt
    • Criminal Contempt
    These are defined in following way-
    civil contempt means wilful disobedience to any
    judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other
    process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking
    given to a court.
    Criminal Contempt
    Criminal Contempt means the publication (whether by words,
    spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or
    otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act
    whatsoever which
    (i) scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower
    the authority of, any court; or
    (ii) prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due
    course of any judicial proceeding; or
    (iii) interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to
    obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
    Defences for Civil Contempt

    The defence to a contemner in Civil Contempt can


    be considered under following headings:
    (1) Disobedience or breach of undertaking was
    not wilful- Under cases of Civil Contempt, it is
    necessry that there has been wilful disobedience to
    any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other
    process of a court or wilful breach of an
    undertaking given to a court contd…
    Contd…..

    In case, the contemner is successful to prove


    that there was no wilful disobedience or breach of
    undertaking given to a court, he may be absolved of
    the liability of civil contempt. In his defence, the
    contemner can plead of the disobedience or breach
    of undertaking given to a court which was not
    wilful.
    Court’s Order passed without
    Jurisdiction
    Where an order of the court has been passed
    without jurisdiction, the disobedience of that order
    will be a defence for the accused person in a
    contempt proceeding. An order passed by a court
    having no jurisdiction over that matter, can be
    disobeyed, as there can be no violation of the order
    of that court which had no jurisdiction to pass the
    order.
    Order Disobeyed is Vague on the
    record
    The ambiguity in the order of the Court is a valid
    defence to the contemner in contempt proceedings. So
    the order of the court must not be vague for obedience
    by the parties.
    In R.M. Ramaul v. State of Himachal Pradesh,
    (1991Cr.l.J. 1415 (SC) the Supreme Court directed
    the corporation to restore the seniority of the
    petitioner in service notionally from the anterior date,
    and such direction was carried out by treating him
    contd…
    Contd…..

    as promoted with effect from a particular date


    without a monetary benefit for that period. The
    Supreme Court held that since there was no specific
    direction with regard to monetary benefits in the
    order, the violation for which was complained,
    technically there was no case of contempt.
    Niaz Mohammed v. State of
    Haryana AIR 1995 SC 308
    The Supreme Court had by its order directed the
    government to fix the scale of pay of instructors
    working in the Education Department of Haryana
    with effect from the date of their initial appointment
    by ignoring certain breaks in service. In the
    contempt petition it was alleged that by not paying
    the arrears of salary to the instructors in terms of the
    order of the Supreme Court, the respondents
    contd…
    Contd…..

    Has committed contempt.


    The Court held that since there was
    no specific direction in the order to pay any
    particular amount to any Instructor, there was no
    contempt on the part of the respondent.
    Atma Ram Kanoria v. L.K.R.Prasad
    (1990) 1 Cr. L.J. 169
    It would be a valid defence to a contempt
    proceeding to plead and establish that the order of
    the court is vague.
    Facts of the case- the Calcutta High
    Court gave a direction to the Municipal Authorities
    to grant sanction “as expeditiously as possible and
    preferably within a period of two weeks from that
    date.” In contempt proceedings contd…
    Contd…..

    Initiated for non-compliance of the direction, the


    High Court held that since there was no specific
    time limit, such non-compliance could not be
    regarded as wilful or deliberate disregard of such
    direction.
    When the Question of Interpretation
    of the Order is involved.
    In S.K. Saha v. Gokul Chandra Dhara (1988) Cr.
    L.J. 21 it has been held that a proceeding for Civil
    Contempt can not be predicated upon the
    disobedience of the order or direction which
    provides scope for different reasonable and rational
    interpretation.
    This view has been reiterated by the S.C.in
    Contd…
    Contd…..

    Hari Nath Sharma v. Jaipur development


    Authority (1995) 4 SCC 25 where it was held that
    where two views are possible as to the effect of
    Court Order and the respondent acts on the basis of
    one such views, it can not be said that he had
    disobeyed the order of the Court.
    Compliance of direction in the order is
    dependent upon determination of other facts

    In Attorney General v. Walthamstow, U.D.C. (1895)


    11 TLR 533 it has been held in the case of
    disobedience of positive orders, that it is the duty of
    the party concerned to find out the proper means of
    obeying the order. It would be a valid defence to say
    that the compliance with the order was impossible.
    In Mohd. Iqbal Khandey v. Abdul Majid Rather AIR
    1994 SC 2252 Sc has directed that contempt
    proceeding should not be initiated where it is
    impossible to comply with the order of the court.
    Ignorance of Court’s Order
    Ignorance of court’s order is a valid defence for the person
    against whom contempt proceedings are to be undertaken.
    Like Prafulla Kumar Sadhukhan v. Murari Hait (1989) Cr.
    L.J. 39 (Calcutta), where party continues to make construction
    of a boundary wall prior to receiving an order of status quo
    under Section 144 (2) of Cr.P.C. and without the knowledge of
    the order, there is no question of contempt.
    In Sukumar Mukhopadhyay v. T.D. Karamchandani (1995)
    Cr. L.J. 1610 (Calcutta) it was held that when a person is
    charged with violation of mandatory order, he can successfully
    plead in defence that order was not formally served to him.

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