S Gurumurthy Criminal Contempt Case

Why in News?

• The Delhi High Court has accepted the apology as “expression of deep remorse” and discharged editor of Tamil political weekly “Thuglak” and RSS Ideologue S Gurumurthy.
• The court was hearing a criminal contempt petition Delhi High Court Bar Association Through its Secretary v. S. Gurumurthy.

Background

• The case was filed against him for his tweet against Justice S Muralidhar in 2018.
• Gurumurthy had posted a question asking whether Justice Muralidhar was a junior of Senior Advocate P Chidambaram.
• The tweet was made after an interim protection was granted to Karti Chidambaram by a division bench headed by Justice Muralidhar in the INX Media case.

Court’s Observations

• The bench observed that judge’s dignity rests on a surer footing. Judges are not dependent on criticism, fair or unfair, for our dignity.

Criminal Contempt

• In India, contempt proceedings are governed by Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
• Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 defines “criminal contempt” in the form of publication scandalizing, interfering or obstructing court proceedings or administration of justice.
• In the case of criminal contempt, the Supreme Court or the High Court may take action on its own motion or on a motion under Section 15 of the Act.
  • Article 129 of the Constitution of India empowers Supreme Court to be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court, including the power to punish for contempt of itself.
• The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra in In Re: Prashant Bhushan & Anr. (2020) remarked on criminal contempt practices.
  • The bench held that “If we do not take cognizance of such conduct, it will give a wrong message to the lawyers and litigants throughout the country”.

Defences Available in the Act

1. Innocent Publication: Under Section 3 if the persons so publishing had at the time of its publication no reasonable grounds for believing that the proceeding was pending, the publication is described as “innocent”.
2. Fair and Accurate Report of Judicial Proceeding: Under Section 4 a person shall not be guilty of contempt of court for publishing a fair and accurate report of a judicial proceeding or any stage thereof.
3. Fair Criticism: Under Section 5 it is the privileged right of the Indian citizen to believe what he considers to be true and to speak out his mind.
4. Complaint Against Presiding Officer: Under Section 6 A person shall not be guilty of contempt of court in respect of any statement made by him in good faith concerning the presiding officer of any subordinate court.
5. Truth as a Defence: Section 13 enables the Court to permit justification by truth as a valid defence in any contempt proceedings if it is public interest or bona fide.
6. Apology: Proviso to Section 12(1) says that the accused may be discharged, or the punishment awarded may be remitted on apology being made to the satisfaction of the Court.

Legal Provisions

Section 2 (c) Contempt of Courts Act, 1971

“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;

Article 129: Supreme Court to be a court of record

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.