& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Govt framing new law on court contempt

Staff Correspondent
Proceedings of contempt of court in recent months on the ground of 'misconduct' in relation to judges outside the courtroom have prompted the government to move to introduce a new contempt law immediately.
The government feels the term -contempt of court -- should be specifically defined as some judges have sued people on charges of contempt following incidents in their personal life.
"It is high time to define what is contempt of court," Law Minister Moudud Ahmed said yesterday at a closed-door meeting with the Law Commission.
He urged former chief justice Mostafa Kamal, chairman of the commission, for expediting drafting of their recommendations to that end.
The law minister also advocated amendments to the rules of the Supreme Court (SC) for resolving problems including delay in the process of completing judgements.
Presently, there is no law on contempt of court except for one of 1926 introduced by the British rulers in regards to the contempt of court. Experts say the law does not define contempt, neither does it give guidelines on how to define it.
Thelaw ministry sent a reference to the Law Commission that, on completion of its review, is working on a draft bill on contempt of court by changing the 1926 one.
"We will scrap the 1926 law," Moudud said.
The Law Commission chairman briefed the meeting participants about reforms to different laws, their research and recommendations including one for contempt of court.
The government should formulate the contempt law in accordance with the constitution, Mostafa Kamal said at yesterday's meeting.
In doing so, the government, however, should keep in mind people's right to freedom of expression and court's power to hand down punishment for contempt of court, both of which are enshrined in the constitution. People' mindset should also be taken into account, he observed.
The law should not infringe the fundamental right of expression in the name of reasonable restriction; a balance needs to be struck here, he said.
"We're moving towards framing thislaw and waiting for your opinions to do it as quickly as possible," the law minister told the commission chairman.
It was mentioned in the meeting that a High Court (HC) judge had the station master of Sylhet Railway Station arrested for not providing him with train coupe according to his requirement; another HC judge charged a district judge with contempt of court for not meeting him when he had gone to Feni on a personal visit; an HC judge sued traffic policemen for not saluting him; and another judge flied a case against the law-enforcers for stopping his car to serve case document.
The law minister asked whether these could amount to contempt.
But it has to be defined whether all the actions of a judge, if these are personal ones taking place outside the court, have anything to do with contempt of court, the law minister said. "It is unjust that no-one, even the newspapers, should be able to talk about a judge's personal act outside the court. So, a guideline is necessary," Moudud noted.
Another incident was mentioned in the meeting, where a district judge met a bank manager who, being unaware of the judge's identity, made some comments criticising the lower court. The judge left the place without telling the manager anything and sued him later for contempt of court.
Asked when the Law Commission is going to submit its recommendations, Justice Mostafa Kamal told reporters after the meeting: "We'll not take more than two months." REFoRMS To
SC RULES
Moudud asked the meeting whether anything could be done to quicken the process of getting copy of the judgements from the Supreme Court, which is now a time-consuming affair.
He also wanted to know whether it is the government or the Supreme Court that would bring reforms to Supreme Court rules.
Justice Mostafa Kamal said during his stint as the chief justice, he found that delay is done at every stage of typing the judgements, sending them to the judge, correction, re-correction, signing by the judge and sending it to the relevant section. He said the delay was cut down after he had taken some steps and suggested the chief justice and the registrar of the Supreme Court play an important rolein the matter.
"The Supreme Court itself can bring about the reforms to resolve these problems," Moudud said, adding his ministry is considering sending a reference to the Law Commission for higher training of the Supreme Court judges.