7 Contempt of Court

1. The constitutional basis: the SC's (and each HC's — Article 139(2)) power to initiate and punish contempt against "anyone obstructing its or its subordinate courts' act of judicial execution or not abiding by its order or verdict" (Article 128(4)) — the execution-obstruction formula: contempt protects the judgment's enforcement, not merely the court's dignity; 2. The categories (the statutory detail in the Contempt of Court framework, by function): civil contempt (disobedience of orders — the execution-protection arm) and criminal contempt (scandalizing, obstructing, interfering — the authority-protection arm); the fair-comment-and-truth qualifications from the general law of contempt; 3. The limits: the open-justice tension (reportage, criticism, academic comment); the sub judice rule's parliamentary mirror (Article 105's no-discussion of judicial acts — the two branches' mutual respect clause); the contempt power's own contempt — its abuse-potential as the classic critique (the self-judging problem); 4. The parliamentary counterpart: the Houses' own contempt powers (Article 103(7)-(8) — Unit 5) — the parallel authority-protecting regimes to keep distinct in the exam.