Uttarakhand High Court Issued Contempt Notice

• 24 Jun 2024

Why in News?

Recently, The Uttarakhand high court has issued a contempt notice to the director of school education for not following its orders to provide a higher pay scale to lecturers and assistant teachers with 10 years of service.

Key Points

• According to a previous order, the High Court had instructed that lecturers and assistant teachers should receive extra increments along with selection and promotion pay scales.
  • The government is still deliberating on the issue and has not reached a final decision.
• The lecturers who were appointed in 2011 argued that they should receive an extra increment and selection pay scale as per the Uttarakhand Government Servant Pay Rules, 2016, after completing ten years of service.
  • The government did grant the selection pay scale after a decade but did not provide the additional increment as expected.

Contempt of Court

• About:
  • Contempt of court seeks to protect judicial institutions from motivated attacks and unwarranted criticism, and as a legal mechanism to punish those who lower its authority.
• Statutory Basis:
  • When the Constitution was adopted, contempt of court was made one of the restrictions on freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of India.
  • Separately, Article 129 of the Constitution conferred on the Supreme Court the power to punish contempt of itself. Article 215 conferred a corresponding power on the High Courts.
  • The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, gives statutory backing to the idea.
• Kinds of Contempt of Court:
  • Civil Contempt: It is the wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
  • Criminal Contempt: It is the publication of any matter or the doing of any other act which scandalises or lowers the authority of any court, or interferes with the due course of any judicial proceeding, or obstructs the administration of justice in any other manner.
• Punishment:
  • The Contempt of Court Act of 1971 punishes the guilty with imprisonment that may extend to six months or fine of Rs 2,000 or both.
    • It was amended in 2006 to include “truth and good faith” as a defence.
    • It was added that the court may impose punishments only if the act of the other person substantially interferes, or tends to interfere with the due course of justice.