Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Act, 20061
| [Act 6 of 2006] | [17th March, 2006] |
[Repealed by Act 19 of 2015*]
An Act further to amend the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-seventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1 Received the assent of the President on 17-3-2006 and published in the Gazette of India, Extra., Part II, Section 1.
* Ed.: Act 6 of 2006 repealed by Act 19 of 2015, S. 2 & Sch. I. See also S. 4 of the Repealing and Amending Act, 2015:
"4. Savings.- The repeal by this Act of any enactment shall not affect any Act in which such enactment has been applied, incorporated or referred to;
and this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect or consequences of anything already done or suffered, or any right, title, obligation or liability already acquired, accrued or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim or demand, or any indemnity already granted, or the proof of any past act or thing;
nor shall this Act affect any principle or rule of law, or established jurisdiction, form or course of pleading, practice or procedure, or existing usage, custom, privilege, restriction, exemption, office or appointment, notwithstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed, recognised or derived by, in or from any enactment hereby repealed;
nor shall the repeal by this Act of any enactment provide or restore any jurisdiction, office, custom, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure or other matter or thing not now existing or in force."
Prefatory Note-Statement of Objects and Reasons.-The existing provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 have been interpreted in various judicial decisions to the effect that truth cannot be pleaded as a defence to a charge of contempt of court.
2. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution has also in its report, inter alia, recommended that in matters of contempt, it shall be open to the Court to permit a defence of justification by truth.
3. The Government has been advised that the amendments to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 to provide for the above provision would introduce fairness in procedure and meet the requirements of Article 21 of the Constitution.
4. Section 13 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 provides certain circumstances under which contempt is not punishable. It is, therefore, proposed to substitute the said section, by an amendment.
5. The Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2003 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on the 8th May, 2003 and the same was referred to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs for examination. The Hon'ble Committee considered the said Bill in its meeting held on the 2nd September, 2003. However, with the dissolution of the 13th Lok Sabha, the Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2003 lapsed. It is proposed to re-introduce the said Bill with modifications of a drafting nature.
6. The Bill seeks to achieve the above objects.
1. Short title.-This Act may be called the Contempt of Courts (Amendment) Act, 2006.
2. Substitution of new section for Section 13.-In the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 (70 of 1971), for Section 13, the following section shall be substituted, namely:-
"13. Contempts not punishable in certain cases.-Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force,-
(a) no court shall impose a sentence under this Act for a contempt of court unless it is satisfied that the contempt is of such a nature that it substantially interferes, or tends substantially to interfere with the due course of justice;
(b) the court may permit, in any proceeding for contempt of court, justification by truth as a valid defence if it is satisfied that it is in public interest and the request for invoking the said defence is bona fide.".