9911796707
TMI Blog1958 (9) TMI 87X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... beyond; they scandalise the Court in such a manner as to create distrust in the minds of the public, and pollute the stream of justice, and in such cases the jurisdiction of the High Court is not ousted (Reads out portions of the transfer application and the affidavit in support). From a perusal of the extracts which have been read, it will be seen that the aspersions made against the Magistrate are of a very serious nature alleging criminal conspiracy, and also that he had taken a bribe of ₹ 500 from the opposite side. So far as the offence under s. 228 of the Indian Penal Code is concerned, the first essential ingredient is that there must be an " intention " to insult. In the affidavit filed in the High Court in reply to the show cause notice the respondent had stated that there was no intention to insult or show disrespect to the Magistrate. [Imam J.-I cannot agree with that, the language used in the application and affidavit is such that intention to insult was clearly there.] That may be true, but there are several earlier decisions of the Allahabad High Court which have been referred to in the case relied upon by the High Court-Narotam Das v. The Emperor, A.I ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ich permit him to punish for Contempt of Court, yet he presumably must have felt that the aspersions made in the present case were so grave as to transcend mere personal insult and as such it was a fit case to be referred to the High Court for taking necessary action. In conclusion, it is submitted that the view taken by the High Court is much too narrow. and cannot be supported either in principle or by the, authorities cited. J. B. Dadachanji and S. N. Andley, for the respondent. The view taken by the High Court is correct and is in accordance with the judgments of the Supreme Court in the cases reported in [1952] S.C.R. and [1953] S.C.R. If the act complained of intentionally offers a personal insult to the Magistrate concerned, it may tend to undermine the administration of justice thereby, but it will nevertheless amount to an offence under s. 228 of the Indian Penal Code and as such the jurisdiction of the High Court will be ousted by s. 3(2) of the Act. It is unsound to say that there are two kinds of contempt, and the lesser kind of contempt will come under s. 228 of the Indian Penal Code and the grosser kind will not come under s. 228 ; every insult to a Court, whatever it ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... September 24. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by S. K. DAS, J.-This is an appeal by special leave from the judgment and order of the then Madhya Bharat High Court, dated February 9, 1955, in Criminal Miscellaneous Application no. 2 of 1954. Originally, the appeal was filed on behalf of the State of Madhya Bharat, now substituted by the State of Madhya Pradesh. The appeal raises an important question with regard to the interpretation of s. 3(2) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1952 (XXXII of 1952), hereinafter referred to as the Act, which repealed the earlier Contempt of Courts Act, 1926 (XII of 1926), as also the Indore Contempt of Courts Act (V of 1930) which was earlier in force in the State of Madhya Bharat. The facts so far as they are relevant to this appeal are these. One Ganga Ram, stated to be the landlord of the respondent Revashankar, instituted a suit, which was numbered as 1383 of 1952 in the court of the Additional City Civil Judge, Indore, for ejectment and arrears of rent against Revashankar. It was stated that the suit was filed in the name of Ganga Ram and his wife Chandra Mukhi Bai. It was further alleged that one Mr. Uma Shankar Chaturvedi, a lawyer actin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ashankar asserted that he was sure that he would not get impartial and legal justice from the Magistrate. The third aspersion was of a more serious character and it was that the Magistrate had a hand in a conspiracy hatched by Messrs. Mohan Singh and Uma Shankar Chaturvedi regarding certain ornaments of Chandra Mukhi Bai with the object of involving, Revashankar and his brother Sushil Kumar in a false case of theft of ornaments. The fourth aspersion was that Mr. Uma Shankar Chaturvedi had declared that he had paid ₹ 500 to the Magistrate through Ganga Ram. These aspersions were later repeated in an affidavit on December 21, 1953. On January 11, 1954, the learned Magistrate reported the aforesaid facts to the Registrar of the Madhya Bharat High Court, and prayed for necessary action against Revashankar for contempt of court. On this report the High Court directed the issue of notice to Revashankar to show cause why action should not be taken against him under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1952 and Criminal Miscellaneous Application no. 2 of 1954 was accordingly started against Revashankar. On March 3, 1954, Revashankar showed cause. The case was then heard by a Division Bench co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... igh Court was precluded from taking cognizance of it. This argument was repelled and this Court said (at page 429):- " In our opinion, the sub-section referred to above excludes the jurisdiction of High Court only in cases where the acts alleged to constitute contempt of a subordinate court are punishable as contempt under specific provisions of the Indian Penal Code but not where these acts merely amount to offences of other description for which punishment has been provided for in the Indian Penal Code. This would be clear from the language of the sub-section which uses the words " where such contempt is an offence " and does not say " where the act alleged to constitute such contempt is an offence ". On an examination of the decisions of several High Courts in India it was laid down that the High Court had the right to protect subordinate courts against contempt but subject to this restriction, that cases of contempt which have already been provided for in the Indian Penal Code should not be taken cognizance of by the High Court. This, it was stated, was the principle underlying s. 2(3) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1926. This Court then observed that i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nd and insult the Magistrate. A man's intention can be judged by the nature of the act he commits. The application directly and in face attributes partiality and corruption to the Magistrate. It was not an application made bona fide to a court having jurisdiction to transfer the case from that Court to some other Court. It was an application thrown in the face of the Magistrate himself. The action is no better than telling the Magistrate in face that he was partial and corrupt. The allegations in the application no doubt are insulting to the Magistrate and he felt them to be so and at the time the application was submitted on 17th December, 1953, when he was sitting as a Court and dealing with the case of the opponent." " Thus, since I hold that the opponent intended to offer insult to the Magistrate concerned there is no doubt that the act would fall within the purview of section 228, Indian Penal Code, and this Court will be precluded from taking action for the contempt committed before the Court of the Magistrate by reason of section 2(3) of the Contempt of Courts Act ". The other learned Judge also expressed the same view in the following words: " T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stage of a judicial proceeding when the application and the affidavit were filed. The High Court no doubt says that the Magistrate was sitting as a court at the time; but there is no reference to the particular work, judicial or otherwise, which the Magistrate was doing at the time. The practice as to the filing of applications and affidavits varies from court to court and in some courts applications and affidavits are filed within stated hours before the reader or the bench clerk; they are so filed even when the Judge or Magistrate is in chamber or preoccupied with some administrative duties. So far as the present case is concerned, it is not at all clear, from the record as placed before us, as to what was the judicial work which the learned Magistrate was doing when the application and affidavit were filed. If he was not doing any judicial work at the relevant time, then the third essential ingredient mentioned above was not fulfilled and the act complained of would not amount to an offence under s. 228, Indian Penal Code. We are not, however, basing our decision on the mere absence of materials to show what particular judicial work the learned Magistrate was doing when the -a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sed the Magistrate, no notice need have been taken of such criticism as contempt of court whatever action it might have been open to the Magistrate to take as an aggrieved individual; but if the respondent acted in malice and attempted to impair the administration of justice, the offence committed would be something more than an offence under s. 228, Indian Penal Code. Learned counsel for the respondent has contended before us that as soon as there is an element of insult in the act complained of, s. 228, Indian Penal Code, is attracted and the jurisdiction of the High Court to take cognizance of the contempt is ousted. We are unable to accept this contention as correct. Section 228 deals with an intentional insult to a public servant in certain circumstances. The punishment for the offence is simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees or with both. Our attention has been drawn to the circumstance that under s. 4 of the Act the sentence for contempt of court is more or less the same, namely, simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months. The fine is a little more and may extend to two thousand r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inally determinative of the question of intention. In two earlier decisions of the same High Court, in Queen Empress v. Abdullah Khan((1898) A.W.N. 145.) and Emperor v. Murli Dhar ((1916) 38 All. 284.), it was held that where an accused person made an application for transfer of the case pending against him and inserted in such application assertions of a defamatory nature concerning the Magistrate who was trying the case, there was no intention on the part of the applicant to insult the court, but the intention was merely to procure a transfer of the case. We do not think that any hard and fast rule can be laid down with regard to this matter. Whether there is an intention to offer insult to the Magistrate trying the case or not must depend on the facts and circumstances of each case and we do not consider it necessary, nor advisable, to lay down any inflexible rule thereto. Taking the aspersions made by the respondent in the application dated December 17, 1953, and the affidavit dated December 21, 1953, at their face value, we have already expressed the view that they amounted to something more than a mere intentional, personal insult to the Magistrate; they scandalised the court ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
