Updated: Sunday January 12, 2014/AlAhad
Rabi' Awwal 11, 1435/Ravivara
Pausa 22, 1935, at 06:12:36 PM
The Contempt of Court Act, 2012
(Declared by Supreme Court of
ACT NO. XVIII OF 2012
An Act to enact a law relating to contempt of Court
[Gazette of
No. F. 9(8)/2012-Legis.—The following Act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament)
received the assent of the President on 11th July, 2012, is hereby published
for general information:---
WHEREAS it is
expedient to repeal and re-enact the law of contempt in exercise of the powers
conferred by clause (3) of Article 204 of the Constitution of the Islamic
Republic of Pakistan;
It is hereby
enacted as follows:---
1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Contempt of Court Act,
2012.
(2) It extends
to the whole of
(3) It shall
come into force at once.
2. Interpretation.—In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the
subject or context,---
(a) “judge”
includes all officers acting in a judicial capacity in the administration of justice;
and
(b) judicial
proceedings in relation to any matter shall be deemed to be pending from the
time when a Court has come to be seized of the matter in a judicial capacity,
till such time as the appellate, revisional or review proceedings in respect of
the matter have come to an end or the period of limitation for filing such
proceedings has expired without any such proceedings having been initiated.
3. Contempt
of Court.—Whoever disobeys or
disregards any order, direction or process of a Court, which he is legally
bound to obey or commits a willful breach of a valid undertaking given to a
Court or does anything which is intended to or tends to bring the authority of
a Court or the administration of law into disrespect or disrepute, or to
interfere with or obstruct or interrupt the process of law or the due course of
any judicial proceedings, or to lower the authority of a Court or scandalize a
judge in relation to his office, or to disturb the order or decorum of a Court,
is said to commit “contempt of Court”:----
Provided that
the following shall not amount to commission of contempt of Court, namely:---
(i) exercise
of powers and performance of functions by a public office holder of his
respective office under clause (1) of Article 248 of the Constitution for any
act done or purported to be done in exercise of those powers and performance of
those functions;
(ii) fair
comments about the general working of Courts made in good faith in the public
interest and in temperate language;
(iii) fair
comments on the merits of a decision of a Court made, after the pendency of the
proceeding in a case, in good faith and in temperate language;
(iv) subject
to a prohibition of publication under Section 9 or under any other law for the
time being in force, the publication of a fair and substantially accurate
report of any judicial proceedings;
(v) the
publication of any matter, amounting to a contempt of Court by reason of its
being published during the pendency of some judicial proceedings, by a person
who had no reasonable ground for believing that such judicial proceedings were
pending at the time of the publication of the matter;
(vi) the
distribution of a publication, containing matter amounting to contempt of
Court, by a person who had no reasonable ground for believing that the
publication contained, or was likely to contain, any such matter;
(vii) a true
averment made in good faith and in temperate language for initiation of action
or in the course of disciplinary proceedings against a judge, before the Chief
Justice of a High Court, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Supreme judicial
Council, the Federal Government or a Provincial Government;
(viii) a plea of
truth taken up as a defence in terms of clause (vi) in proceedings for contempt
of Court arising from an earlier averment unless it is false;
(ix) relevant
observations made in judicial capacity, such as, those by a higher Court on an
appeal or revision or application for transfer of a case, or by a Court in
judicial proceedings against a judge;
(x) remarks
made in an administrative capacity by any authority in the course of official
business, including those in connection with a disciplinary inquiry or in an
inspection note or a character roll or confidential report; and
(xi) a true
statement made in good faith respecting the conduct of a judge in a matter not
connected with the performance of his judicial functions.
4. Punishment.—(1)
Subject to sub-section (2), any person who commits contempt of Court shall be
punished with imprisonment which may extend to six months simple imprisonment,
or with fine which may extend to one hundred thousand rupees, or with both.
(2) A person accused of having committed
contempt of Court may, at any stage, submit an apology and the Court, if
satisfied that it is bona fide, may discharge
him or remit his sentence.
Explanation.—The
fact that an accused person genuinely believes that he has not committed
contempt and enters a defence shall not detract from the bona fides of an apology.
(3) In the case of a contempt having been committed,
or alleged to have been committed, by a company, the responsibility shall
extend to the persons in the company, directly or indirectly, responsible for
the same, who shall also be liable to be punished accordingly.
(4)
Notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, no Court shall have the
power to pass any order of punishment for or in relation to any act of
contempt, save and except in accordance with sub-section (1).
5. Jurisdiction.—(1) A High Court or the Supreme Court, on its own
information or on information laid before it by any person, may take cognizance
of an alleged commission of contempt of the Court.
(2) The Supreme Court shall have the power to
take cognizance of any contempt of itself or of any judge of the Supreme Court
alleged to have been committed anywhere and a High Court shall have the power
to take cognizance of any contempt of itself or of any judge thereof or of any
other High Court or of any judge thereof alleged to have been committed within
the territorial limits of its jurisdiction.
(3) A High Court shall exercise the same
jurisdiction in respect of contempts of Courts sub-ordinate to it or to any
other High Court as it exercises in respect of contempts of itself.
(4) Nothing contained herein shall affect the
power of any Court to punish any offence of contempt under the Pakistan Penal
Code.
6. Bars to
taking cognizance.—(1) No High Court
shall take cognizance under this Act of a contempt alleged to have been
committed in respect of a Court sub-ordinate to it where the said contempt is
an offence punishable under the Pakistan Penal Code.
(3) No Court shall take cognizance of contempt
of Court arising from an averment made in due course in appellate, revisional
or review proceedings, till such proceedings have been finalized and no further
appeal, revision or review lies.
(a) until the
petition to which the averment relates has been finally disposed of; or
(b) otherwise
than under the orders of the Chief Justice of the High Court, the Chief Justice
of Pakistan, the Supreme Judicial Council, the Federal Government or the
Provincial Government, as the case may be.
7. Procedure
for Supreme Court and High Court.—(1)
Whenever it appears to the Supreme Court or a High Court that there is
sufficient ground for believing that a person has committed contempt of Court
and that it is necessary in the interest of effective administration of justice
to proceed against him, it shall make an order in writing to that effect
setting forth the substance of the charge against the accuse, and, unless he is
present in Court, shall require by means of an appropriate process that he
appears or be brought before it to answer the charge.
(2) The Court shall inform the accused of the
ground on which he is charged with contempt of Court and call upon to
show-cause why he should not be punished.
(3) The Court, after holding such inquiry and
taking such evidence as it deems necessary or is produced by the accused in his
own defence and after heading the accused and such other person as it deems
fit, shall give a decision in the case:
Provided that,
in any such proceedings, before the Supreme Court or High Court, any finding
given in its own proceedings, by the Supreme Judicial Council about the nature
of an averment made before it, that is relevant to the requirements of clause
(vi) of the proviso to Section 3, shall be conclusive evidence of the nature of
such averment.
(4) If contempt of Court is committed in the
view or presence of the Court, the Court may cause the offender to be detained
in custody and, at any time before the rising of the Court on the same day, may
proceed against him in the manner provided for in the preceding sub-Sections.
(5) If any case referred to in sub-section (4)
cannot be finally dispose of on the same day, the Court shall order the release
of the offender from custody either on bail or on his own bond.
8. Transfer
of proceedings for reasons personal to the judge.—(1) Where, in a case in which a judge has made an
order under sub-section (1) of Section 7, not being a case referred to in
sub-section (4) of that section, the allege contempt of Court involves
scandalization personal to such judge and is not scandalization of the Court as
a whole or of all the judges of the Court, judge shall forward the record of
the case and such comments, if any, as he deems fit to make, to the Chief
Justice of the Court.
(2) On receipt
of the papers, mentioned in sub-section (1), the Chief Justice, after inviting,
if he deems fit, further comments, if any, from the judge first taking of the
offence and making such inquiry in such manner as he deems fit, shall pass
orders specifying which one of the following shall hear the case,---
(a) another
judge, which if the Chief Justice so orders, may be the Chief Justice; or
(b) a Bench
of judges set up by the Chief Justice, of which the judge first taking
cognizance of the offence is not a member, and the case shall then be heard
accordingly.
(3) If, at any stage of a case in which the
Chief Justice has passed an order under clause (a) of sub-section (2), the
Chief Justice is of opinion that, in the interest of justice, the case shall be
transferred to another judge, he may pass an order accordingly and the case
shall then be heard by such other judge.
(4) When, in pursuance of an order under
sub-section (2), the judge first taking cognizance of the case is not hearing
the case,---
(a) the other
judge or, as the case may be, the Bench of judges hearing the case may invite
or receive any further comments from the judge first taking cognizance of the
offence and shall call and hear any witnesses whom such judge desires to be
examined; and
(b) all
comments furnished by the judge first taking cognizance of the offence shall be
treated as evidence in the case and such judge shall not be required to appear
to give evidence.
(5) When in a case the first cognizance of the
offence has been taken by the Chief Justice, the functions of the Chief
Justice, under sub-Sections (1), (2) and (3) shall be performed by a Bench of
judges composed of the two next most senior judges available.
9. Proceedings
in camera and prohibition of publication of proceedings.—In case of proceedings for transfer of a hearing under
Section 8 or of any proceedings in which truth is pleaded as a defence in terms
of clause (vi) of the proviso to Section 3, the Court, if it deems it fit in
the public interest, may hear the case or any part thereof in camera and
prohibit the publication of the proceedings of the case or any part thereof.
10. Expunged
material.—No material which has been
expunged from the record under the orders of,---
(a) a Court of competent jurisdiction; or
(b) the
presiding officer of the Senate, the National Assembly or a Provincial
Assembly,
shall be admissible in evidence.
11. Appeal
and limitation for appeal.—(1) From
an original order passed by the High Court under this Act an appeal shall lie,
if the order is passed by a single judge, to a Division Bench, and if it is
passed by a Bench of two or more judges, to the Supreme Court.
(2) An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court
from an order passed by a Division Bench of a High Court in appeal against an
order passed by a single judge.
(3) An intra-Court appeal shall lie against the
issuance of a show-cause notice or an original order including an interim order
passed by a Bench of the Supreme Court in any case, including a pending case to
a larger Bench consisting of all the remaining available judges of the Court
within the country:---
Provided that in
the event the impugned show-cause or order has been passed by half or more of
the judges of the Court, the matter shall, on the application of an aggrieved
person, be put up for re-appraisal before the full Court:---
Provided further
that the operation of the impugned show-cause notice or order shall remain
suspended until the final disposal of the matter in the manner hereinbefore
provided
(4) An appeal under sub-section (1) or
sub-section (2) shall be filed,---
(a) in the
case of an appeal to a Bench of the High Court, within thirty days; and
(b) in the
case of an appeal to the Supreme Court, within sixty days, from the date of the
order appealed against,
(5) An intra-Court appeal or application for
re-appraisal shall be filed within thirty days from the date of show-cause
notice or the order, as the case may be.
12. Power to make
rules.—The Federal Government may
make rules, not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, providing for any
matter relating to the procedure.
13. Repeal.—(1) The Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003 (V of 2003)
is hereby repealed.
(2) For removal
of doubt it is hereby declared that the Contempt of Court Act, 1976 (LXIV of
1976), the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003 (V of 2003) and the Contempt of
Court Ordinance, 2004 (I of 2004) stand repealed.
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