Brahma Prakash Sharma & Ors Vs.
The State of Uttar Pradesh [1953] INSC 41 (8 May 1953)
MUKHERJEA, B.K.
BHAGWATI, NATWARLAL H.
SASTRI, M. PATANJALI (CJ) DAS, SUDHI RANJAN
HASAN, GHULAM
CITATION: 1954 AIR 10 1954 SCR 1169
CITATOR INFO :
C 1954 SC 743 (4) E&F 1959 SC 102 (3) R
1962 SC1172 (29) R 1971 SC 221 (17) RF 1971 SC1132 (53,58) R 1972 SC 989 (8) D
1974 SC 710 (51) R 1978 SC 727 (42,44) F 1978 SC 921 (12,16) R 1992 SC 904
(23,54)
ACT:
Contempt of Courts Act, 1926, s. 3 Reflection
on condition character of Judicial Officers When amounts to contempt of court
Contempt proceedings--Guiding principles Matters to be considered-Relevancy of surrounding
circumstancesJurisdiction to be sparing exercised.
HEADNOTE:
(1) Vide Vaghoji v. Camaji, I.I..R. 29 Bom.
249.
117O The object of contempt proceedings is
not to afford protection to judges personally from imputations to which they
maybe exposed as individuals, but is intended to be a protection to the public
whose interest would be very much affected if, by the act or conduct of any
party, the authority of the court is lowered and the sense of confidence which
the people have in the administration of justice by it is weakened.
When the court itself is attacked, the
summary jurisdiction by way of contempt 'proceedings must be exercised with
scrupulous care and only when the case is clear and beyond reasonable doubt.
There are two primary considerations which
should weigh with the court in such cases, viz., first whether the reflection
on the conduct or character of the judge is within the limits of fair and
reasonable criticism, and secondly, whether it is a mere libel or defamation of
the judge or amounts to a contempt of the court. If it is a mere defamatory
attack on the judge and is not calculated to interfere with the due course of
justice or the proper administration of the law by such court, it is not proper
to proceed by way of contempt.
Where the question arises whether a
defamatory statement directed against a judge is calculated to undermine the
confidence of the public in the competency or integrity of the judge or is
likely to deflect the court itself from a strict and unhesitant performance of
its duties, all the surrounding facts and circumstances under which the statement
was made and the degree of publicity that was given to it would be relevant
circumstances. The question is not to be determined solely with reference to
the language or contents of the statement made.
The Executive Committee of a District Bar Association
received several complaints against the way in which the Judicial Magistrate
and the Revenue Officer of the District disposed of cases and behaved towards
litigants and lawyers, and passed a resolution which stated that " it was
their considered opinion that the two officers are thoroughly incompetent in
law, do not inspire confidence in their judicial work, are given to stating
wrong facts when passing orders and are overbearing and discourteous to the
litigant public and lawyers alike " and gave a list of various complaints
against the officers. This resolution was passed in camera, typed out by the
President himself and forwarded confidentially to the District Magistrate,
Commissioner of the Division, and the Chief Secretary and Premier of the State.
The District Magistrate moved the High Court of Allahabad to take action
against the appellants, who had passed the resolution, for contempt of court.
The High Court held that the appellants were guilty of contempt but accepted
their apology. On appeal:
Held, that in the light of all the
circumstances of the case, the contempt, if any, was only of a technical
character and that after the affidavits bad been filed on behalf of the
appellants before the High Court, the proceedings against them should have been
dropped.
1171
CRMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal
Appeal No. 24 of 1951.
Appeal by special leave granted by the
Supreme Court on the 2nd April, 1951, from the Judgment and Order dated the 5th
May, 1950, of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Criminal
Miscellaneous Case No. 34 of 1949.
M. C. Setalvad, Attorney-General for India,
K. S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar and S. P.Sinha (V. N. Sethi, K. B. Asthana, N. C.
Sen, K. N. Aggarwala, Shaukat Hussain, K. P. Gupta, M. D. Upadhyaya and G. C.
Mathur, with them) for the appellants.
Gopalji Mehrotra and Jagdish Chandra for the
respondent.
1953. May 8. The Judgment of the Court was
delivered by MUKHERJEA, J.This appeal which has come before us, on special
leave, is directed against a judgment of a Full Bench of the Allahabad High
Court, dated 5th May, 1950, by which the learned judges held the appellants
guilty of contempt of court; and although the apology tendered by the
appellants was accepted, they were directed to pay the costs of the respondent
State.
The appellants, six in number, are members of
the Executive Committee of the District Bar Association at Muzaffarnagar within
the State of Uttar Pradesh, and the contempt proceedings were started against
them, because of certain resolutions passed by the Committee on 20th April,
1949, copies of which were forwarded to the District Magistrate and other
officers by a covering letter signed by appellant No.1 as President of the Bar
Association.
To appreciate the contentions that have been
raised in this appeal, it would be necessary to state a few relevant facts.
The resolutions which form the basis of the
contempt proceedings relate to the conduct of two judicial officers, both of
whom functioned At 1172 Muzafarnagarn at the relevant time. One of them named
Kanhaya Lal Mehra was a Judicial Magistrate while the other named Lalta Prasad
was a Revenue Officer. It is said that the first appellant as President of the
Bar Association received numerous complaints regarding the way in which these officers
diposed of cases in their courts and behaved towards the lawyers and the
litigant public. The Executive Committee of the Association took the matter in
hand and, after satisfying themselves that the complaints were legitimate and
well-founded, they held a meeting on 20th April, 1949, in which the following
resolutions were passed:Rsolved that ---"Whereas the members of the
Association have had ample opportunity of forming an opinion of the judicial
work of Sri Kanhaya Lal, Judicial Magistrate, and Shri Lalta Prasad, Revenue
Officer, It is now their considered opinion that the two officers are
thoroughly incompetent in law, do not inspire confidence in their judicial
work, are given to stating wrong facts when passing orders and are overbearing and
discourteous to the litigant public and the lawyers alike. Besides the
above-mentioned defects common to both of them, other defects are separately
catalogued as hereunder:* * * * (The complaints against each of the officers
separately were then set out under specific heads).
Resolved further that copies of the
resolution be sent to the Honourable Premier, the Chief Secretary of the Uttar
Pradesh Government, the Commissioner and the District Magistrate for suitable
action;
Resolved that the District Magistrate and
Collector be requested to meet a deputation of the following in this connection
at an early date;" (The names of 5 members who were to form the deputation
were then mentioned.) 1173 It is not disputed that this meeting of the
Executive Committee of the Bar Association was held in camera and no non-member
was allowed to be present' at it. The resolutions were typed out by the
President himself and the proceedings were not recorded in the Minute Book of
the Association at all. On the following day, that is, on 21st April, 1949, the
President sent a copy of the resolutions with a covering letter marked "
confidential" to the District Magistrate, Muzaffarnagar. Copies of the
resolutions were similarly despatched to the Commissioner of the Division, the
Chief Secretary and the Premier of Uttar Pradesh. It is not disputed that the
District Magistrate was the immediate superior of the officers concerned, and
the other three were the higher executive authorities in the official
hierarchy. One paragraph of this covering letter contained the following
statement:"Complaints against these officers had been mounting and a stage
was reached when the matter had to be taken up formally. The resolution is not
only well-considered and unanimous but represents a consensus of opinion of all
practitioners in the Criminal and Revenue side." The post-script of the
letter addressed to the District Magistrate contained a prayer that he might
find it convenient to fix an early date to meet the deputation of 5 members as indicated
in the third resolution.
The Divisional Commissioner, by his letter
dated 27th April, 1949, addressed to appellant No. 1, acknowledged receipt of
the copy of the resolutions and requested the addressee to supply specific
details of cases tried by these officers in support of the allegations
contained in the resolution. Without waiting for this information, however, the
Commissioner on the day following wrote a letter to the Chief Secretary of the
U.P. Government suggesting that the matter should be brought to the notice of
the High Court inasmuch as instances were not rare where influential members of
the Bar got resolutions like these passed by their associations with a view to
put 152 1174 extra-judicial pressure upon the judicial officers so ,as to make
them amenable to their wishes which often were questionable. On 10th May, 1949,
a deputation of 5 members waited upon the District Magistrate and discussed
with the latter the entire situation. The Magistrate also told the deputation
that the details of complaints as required by the Commissioner should be
furnished at an early date. These details were sent to the District Magistrate
by the appellant No. I on 20th June, 1949, and specific instances were cited,
the accuracy of which was vouched by a number of senior lawyers who actually
conducted those cases. On 20th July, 1949, the District Magistrate through the
Divisional Commissioner wrote a letter to the Registrar of the High Court of
Allahabad requesting the latter to draw the attention of the High Court to the
resolutions passed on 20th April, 1949, and other remarks made by the members
of the Committee and suggesting that suitable action might be taken against
them under section 3 of the Contempt of Courts Act of 1926. On 16th November,
1949, the High Court directed the issue of notices on 8 members of the
Committee to show cause why they should not be dealt with for contempt of court
in respect of certain portions of the resolution which were set out in the
notice. In answer to these notices, the opposite parties appeared and filed
affidavits.
The case was heard by a Bench of three Judges
who, by their judgment dated 5th May, 1950, came to the conclusion that with
the exception of two of the opposite parties who were not members of the
Executive Committee at the relevant date, the remaining six were guilty of
contempt of' court. It was held that the opposite parties were not actuated by
any personal or improper motives; the statement made on their behalf that their
object was not to interfere with but to improve the administration of justice
was accepted by the court, but nevertheless it was observed that the terms used
in the resolution were little removed from personal abuse and whatever might
have been the motive, they clearly were likely to bring the Magistrate into
contempt and 1175 lower their authority. The concluding portion of the judgment
stands as follows:"We think that the opposite parties acted under a
misapprehension as to the position, but they have expressed their regrets and
tendered an unqualified apology. In the circumstances, we accept their apology,
but we direct that they pay the costs of the Government Advocate which we
assess at Rs. 300." It is the propriety of this judgment that has been
assailed before us in this appeal.
According to the learned judges of the High
Court,, the allegations made against the judicial officers in the present case
come within the category of contempt which is committed by "scandalising
the court". The learned judges observed on authority of the pronouncement
of Lord Russell in Reg. v. Gray(1), that this class of contempt is subject to
one important qualification. The judges and courts are alike open to criticism
and if reasonable argument or expostulation is offered against any judicial act
as contrary to law or the public good, no court could treat that as contempt of
court. In the opinion of the learned judges, the complaint lodged by the
appellants exceeded the bounds of fair and legitimate criticism and in this
respect the members of the Bar Association could not claim any higher privilege
than ordinary citizens. No distinction, the High Court held, could also be made
by reason of the fact that the charges against the judicial officers in the
present case were embodied in a representation made to authorities who were the
official superiors of the officers concerned and under whose administrative
control the latter acted.
The learned Attorney-General who appeared in
sup. port of the appeal, characterised this way of approach of the High Court
as entirely wrong. His contention is that any act or publication which is
calculated to lower the authority or dignity of a judge does not per se amount
to contempt of court. The test is whether the allegations are of such character
or are made in (1) [1900] 2 Q.B 36.
1176 such circumstances as would tend to
obstruct or interfere with the course of justice or the due administration of
law.
Reliance was placed by him in this connection
upon certain pronouncements of the Judicial Committee which held definitely
that an imputation affecting the character or conduct of a judge, even I though
it could be the subjectmatter of a libel proceeding, would not necessarily
amount to a contempt of court. The Attorney-General laid very great stress on
the fact that the resolutions passed and the representations made by the
appellants in the present case were not for the purpose of exposing before the
public the alleged shortcomings of the officers concerned ; the whole object
was to have the grievances of the lawyers and the litigating public which were
genuinely felt, removed by an appeal to the authorities who alone were
competent to remove them. Such conduct, it is argued, cannot in any way be
calculated to interfere with the due administration of law and cannot be held
to be contempt of court. The points raised are undoubtedly important and
require to be examined carefully.
It admits of no dispute that the summary
jurisdiction exercised by superior courts in punishing contempt of their
authority exists for the purpose of preventing interference with the course of
justice and for maintaining the authority of law as is administered in the
courts. It would be only repeating what has been said so often by various
judges that the object of contempt proceedings is not to afford protection to
judges, personally from imputations to which they may be exposed as
individuals; it is intended to be a protection to the public whose interests
would be very much affected if by the act or conduct of any party, the
authority of the court is lowered and the sense of confidence which people have
in the administration of justice by it is weakened.
There are indeed innumerable ways by which
attempts can be made to hinder obstruct the due administration of justice in
courts. One type of such 1177 interference is found in cases where there is an
act or, publication which "amounts to scandalising the court itself"
an expression which is familiar to English lawyers since the days of Lord
Hardwick(1). This scandalising might manifest itself in various ways but, in
substance, it is an attack on individual judges or the court as a whole with or
without reference to particular cases, casting unwarranted and defamatory
aspersions upon the character or ability of the judges. Such conduct, is punished
as contempt for this reason that it tends to create distrust in the popular
mind and impair the confidence of the people in the courts which are of prime
importance to the litigants in the protection of their rights and liberties.
There are decisions of English courts from
early times where the courts assumed jurisdiction in taking committal
proceedings against persons who were guilty of publishing any scandalous matter
in respect of the court itself. In the year 1899, Lord Morris in delivering the
judgment of the Judicial Committee in MacLeod v. St. Aubin(2) observed that
"committals for contempt by scandalising the court itself have become
obsolete in this country. Courts are satisfied to leave to public opinion
attacks or comments derogatory or scandalous to them." His Lordship said
further: "The power summarily to commit for contempt is considered
necessary for the proper administration of justice. It is not to be used for
the vindication of a judge as a person. He must resort to action for libel or
criminal information." The observation of Lord Morris that contempt
proceedings for scandalising the courts have become obsolete in England is not,
strictly speaking, correct; for, in the very next year, such proceedings were
taken in Reg. v. Gray(1). In that case, there was a scandalous attack of a
rather atrocious type on Darling J. who was sitting at that time in Birmingham
Assizes and was trying a man named Wells who was indicted intter alia for
selling and publishing obscene literature.
(1) Vide In re Read and Huggonoson (1742) 2
Atk 469, 471.
(2) [1899] A. C. 549.
(3) (1900] 2 Q.B. 36.
1178 The judge, in the course of the trial,
gave a warning ,to the newspaper press that in reporting the proceedings of the
court, it was not proper for them to give publicity to indecent matters that
were revealed during trial. Upon this, the defendant published an article 'in
the Birmingham Daily Argus, under the heading "An advocate of
Decency", where Darling J. was abused in scurrilous language. The case of
Wells was then over but the Assizes were still sitting. There can be no doubt
that the publication amounted to contempt of court and such attack was
calculated to interfere directly with proper administration of justice.
Lord Russell in the course of his judgment,
however, took care to observe that the summary jurisdiction by way of contempt
proceedings in such cases where the court itself was attacked has to be
exercised with scrupulous care and only 'when the case is clear and beyond
reasonable doubt.
"Because", as his Lordship said,
"if it is not a case beyond reasonable doubt, the court should and ought
to leave the Attorney-General to proceed by criminal information". In
1943, Lord Atkin, while delivering the judgment of the Privy Council in Devi Prashad
v. King Emperor(1), observed that cases of contempt, which consist of
scandalising the court itself, are fortunately rare and require to be treated
with much discretion. Proceedings for this species of contempt should be used
sparingly and always with reference to the administration of justice. "If
a judge is defamed in such a way as not to affect the administration of
justice, he has the ordinary remedies for defamation if he should feel impelled
to use them." It seems, therefore, that there are two primary considerations
which should weigh with the court when it is called upon to exercise the
summary powers in cases of contempt committed by "scandalising" the
court itself. In the first place, the rejection on the conduct or character of
a judge in reference to the discharge of his judicial duties would not be
contempt if such reflection is made in the exercise of the right of fair and
reasonable criticism which every citizen possesses in (1) 70 1, A. 216.
1179 respect of public acts done in the seat
of justice. It is not by stifling criticism that confidence in courts can be
created. "The path of criticism", said Lord Atkin(1), "is a
public way. The wrong-headed are permitted to err therein;
provided that members of the public abstain,
from imputing motives to those taking part in the administration of justice and
are genuinely exercising a right of criticism and not acting in malice, or
attempt to impair the administration of justice, they are immune." In the
second place, when attacks or comments are made on a judge or judges,
disparaging in character and derogatory to their dignity, care should be taken
to distinguish between what is a libel on the judge and what amounts really to
contempt of court. The fact that a statement is defamatory so far as the judge
is concerned does not necessarily make it a contempt. The distinction between a
libel and a contempt was pointed out by a Committee of the Privy Council, to
which a reference was made by the Secretary of State in 1892 (2). A man in the
Bahama Islands, in a letter published in a colonial newspaper criticized the
Chief Justice of the Colony in an extremely ill-chosen language which was
sarcastic and pungent. There was a veiled insinuation that he was an
incompetent judge and a shirker of work and the writer suggested in a way that
it would be a providential thing if he were to die. A strong Board constituting
of 11 members reported that the letter complained of. though it might have been
made the subject of proceedings for libel, was not, in the circumstances.
calculated to obstruct or interfere with the course of justice or the due
administration of the law and therefore did not constitute a contempt of court.
The same principle was reiterated by Lord Atkin in the case of Devi Prashad v.
King Emperor(,') referred to above. It was followed and approved of by the High
Court of Australia in King v. Nicholls(1), and has been accepted as sound by
this (1) Ambard v. Attney-General for Trinidad and Tobago, [1936] A.C 322 at P.
335.
(2) In the matter of a special referencefrom
the Bahama Islands [1893] A. C. 138.
(3) 70 I.A. 216. (4) 12 Com. L. R. 280 1180
Court in Reddy v. The State of Madras (1). The position therefore is that a
defamatory attack on a judge may be a libel so far as the judge is concerned
and it would be open to him to proceed against the libellor in a proper action
if he so chooses. If, however, the publication of the disparaging statement is
calculated to interfere with the due course of justice or proper administration
of law by such court, it can be punished summarily as contempt. One is a wrong
done to the judge personally while the other is a wrong done to the public. It
will be an injury to the public if it tends to create an apprehension in the
minds of the people regarding the integrity, ability or fairness of the judge
or to deter actual and prospective litigants from placing complete reliance
upon the court's administration of justice, or if it is likely to cause
embarrassment in the mind of the judge himself in the discharge of his judicial
duties. It is well established that it is not necessary to prove affirmatively
that there has been an actual interference with the administration of justice
by reason of such defamatory statement; it is enough if it is likely, or tends
in any way, to interfere with the proper administration of law (2).
It is in the light of these principles that
we will proceed to examine the facts of the present case.
It cannot be disputed that in regard to
matters of contempt, the members of a Bar Association do not occupy any
privileged or higher position than ordinary citizens. The form in which the
disparaging statement is made is also not material, but one very important
thing has to be noticed in the case before us, viz., that even assuming that
the statement was derogatory to the dignity of the judicial officers, very
little publicity was given to this statement, and in fact, the appellants made
their best endeavours to keep the thing out of the knowledge of the public. The
representation was made to 4 specified persons who were the official superiors
of the officers concerned; and it has been found as a fact by the High Court
that the appellants (1) (1952] S. C. R. 452.
(2) Mr. Mookerjea J. in In re Motilal Ghosh
and Othera, I.L.R. 45 Cal. 269 at 283.
1181 acted bona fide with no intention to
interfere with the administration of justice though they might have been under
a misapprehension regarding the precise legal position. No copies of the
resolution were even sent to the officers concerned. Apart from the contents of
the representation by the appellants and the language use therein, this fact
would have a bearing on the question as to whether the conduct of the
appellants brought them within the purview of the law of contempt.
The first question that requires
consideration is whether in making the allegations which they did against the
two judicial officers, the appellants exceeded the limits of fair and
legitimate criticism. There were three resolutions passed at the meeting; the
second, and third were of a mere formal character and do not require any
consideration. The offending statement is to be found in the first resolution
which again is in two parts. In the first part, there are allegations of a
general nature against both the officers, but the second part enumerates under
specific heads the complaints which the Committee had against each of them
separately.
With regard to Kanhaya Lal, the a legations
are that he does not record the evidence in cases tried by him properly, that
in all criminal matters transferred to his court, where the accused are already
on bail, he does not give them time to furnish fresh sureties with the result
that they are sent to jail, and lastly, that he is not accommodating to lawyers
at all. So far as the other officer is concerned, one serious allegation made
is, that he follows the highly illegal procedure of hearing two cases at one
and the same time, and while he records the evidence in one case himself, he
allows the Court Reader to do the thing in the other. It is said also that he
is short-tempered and frequently threatens lawyers with proceedings for
contempt. Some of these complaints are not at all serious and no judge, unless
he is hypersensitive, would at all feel aggrieved by them.
It is undoubtedly a grave charge that the
Revenue Officer hears two cases simultaneously and allows the Court Reader to
do the work for him. If true 153 1182 it is a patent illegality and is
precisely a matter which should be brought to the notice of the District
Magistrate who is the administrative head of these officers.
As regards the first part of the resolution,
the allegations are made in general terms that' these officers do not state
facts correctly when they pass orders and that they are discourteous to the
litigant public. These do not by any moans amount to scandalising the court.
Such complaints are frequently heard in respect of many subordinate courts and
if the appellants had a genuine grievance,it cannot be said that, in
ventilating their grievances they exceeded the limits affair criticism.
The only portion of the resolution to which
'prima facie objection can be taken is that which describes these officers as
thoroughly incompetent in law and whose judicial work does not inspire
confidence. Those remarks are certainly of a sweeping nature and can scarcely
be justified. Assuming, however, that this portion of the resolution is
defamatory, the question arises whether it can be held to amount to contempt of
court. To answer this question, we have to see whether it is in any way
calculated to interfere with the due administration of justice in these courts,
or, in other words, whether such statement is likely to give rise to an
apprehension in the minds of litigants as to the ability. of the two judicial
officers to deal properly with cases-coming before them, or even to embarrass
the officers themselves in the discharge of their duties.
We are unable to agree with the learned
counsel for the respondent that whether or not the representation made by the
appellants in the present case is calculated produce these results is to be
determined solely and exclusively with reference to the language or con tents
of the resolutions themselves; and that-no other fact or circumstance can be
looked into for this purpose, except perhaps as matters which vate or mitigate
the offence of content: offence is found to have been committed that pleas of
justification or privilege are speaking available to the defendant in contempt
1183 proceedings. The question of publication also in the technical sense in
which it is relevant in, a libel action may be inappropriate to the law of
contempt. But, leaving out cases of ex facie contempt, where the question
arises as to whether a defamatory statement directed against a judge is
calculated to undermine the confidence of the public in the capacity or
integrity. of the judge or is likely to deflect the court itself from a strict
and unhesitant performance of its duties, all the surroundung facts and
circumstances under which the statement was made and the degree of publicity a
was givine to it would undoubtedly be relevant' circumstances. It is true as
the learned counsel for the respondent suggests that the matter was discussed
in the present case among the members of the Bar, and it might have been the
subject-matter of discussion amongst the officers also to whom copies of the
resolutions were sent.
No doubt, there was publication as, is
required by the law of libel, but in contempt proceedings, that is not by any
means conclusive. What is material is the nature. and extent of the publication
and whether or not it was likely to have an injurious effect on the minds of
the public or of the judiciary itself and therefore to interference with the
administration of justice. On the materials before us,, it is difficult to say
that the circumstances under which the representation was made by the
appellants was calculated to have such effect. There might have been some
remote possibility but that cannot be taken note of. We are clearly of the
opinion that the contempt, if any, was only of a technical character, and that
after the affidavits were filed on behalf of the appellants before the High
Court, the proceedings against them should have been dropped. The result,
therefore, is that the appeal is allowed and the judgment of the High Court is
set aside. There will be no order for costs either here or in the court below
in favour of either party.
Appeal allowed..
Agent for the appellants: S. S. Shukla.
Agent for the respondents: C. P. Lal.
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