Why in News ?
Supreme court taken up suo moto case against lawyer Prasanth Bhushan’s tweets based on a complaint. SC held him guilty for Contempt Of Court.
What is Contempt Of Court ?
This is mentioned in the Act : The Contempt Of Court Act, 1971.
The content of court can be
- Civil : Wilful disobedience to any judgement, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
- Criminal : Any words, spoken or written that was against any any judicial proceeding interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
The punishment may be with simple imprisonment for a term up to six months or with fine up to 2,000 or with both.
Does it a violation of Freedom of Speech ?
Article 19 (a) provides Freedom of Speech. The Freedom of Speech provided provided with some reasonable restriction. Freedom of speech refers to the right to express an opinion without any restrictions and at the same time we should know when to quiet.
Article 129, Article 142 provides the SC shall be a court have all the power including the power to punish for contempt of itself.
Need for Contempt of Court
Productive criticism of any Judgement is acceptable and cannot challenge the motives behind. Freedom of Speech against court to any degree affects the functioning of the government.
This may lead to the confidence of public over Supreme Court the highest and final court . At the same time it is good for productive criticism without degrading the functioning of the Court.
At the same time Contempt of Court should never leads to stop any productive criticism.
Source : The Hindu
Topic : GS II – Structure, organisation and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary, Ministries and Departments of the Government.