ACT NO. XVIII OF 2012
CONTEMPT OF COURT ACT, 2012
An Act to enact a law relating to contempt of
Court
[Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, Part-I, 12th July 2012].
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 Pakistan.
(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.
(2) No Court shall take cognizance, as of a contempt of Court,
of any averment made before the Supreme Judicial Council in respect of which
the Supreme Judicial Council has given a finding that the averment fulfilled
the requirements of clause (vi) of the proviso to Section 3.
(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.
(4) No Court shall take cognizance of a contempt of Court
arising from an averment made before the Chief Justice of a High Court, the
Chief Justice of Pakistan, the Supreme Judicial Council, the Federal Government
or a Provincial Government—
(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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