THE CONTEMPT OF COURTS ACT, 1971 ACT NO. 70 OF 1971 [24th December, 1971.] An Act to define and limit the powers of certain courts in punishing contempts of courts and to regulate their procedure in relation thereto. BE it enacted by Parliament in the Twenty-second Year of the Republic of India as follows:— 1. Short title and extent.—(1) This Act may be called the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. (2) It extends to the whole of India: Provided that it shall not apply to the State of Jammu and Kashmir except to the extent to which the provisions of this Act relate to contempt of the Supreme Court. 2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,— (a) “contempt of court” means civil contempt or criminal contempt; (b) “civil contempt” means 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; (c) “criminal contempt” means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which— (i) scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or (ii) prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or (iii) interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner; (d) “High Court” means the High Court for a State or a Union territory, and includes the court of the Judicial Commissioner in any Union territory. 3. Innocent publication and distribution of matter not contempt.—(1) A person shall not be guilty of contempt of court on the ground that he has published (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) any matter which interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the course of justice in connection with any civil or criminal proceeding pending at that time of publication, if at that time he had no reasonable grounds for believing that the proceeding was pending. (2) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Act or any other law for the time being in force, the publication of any such matter as is mentioned in sub-section (1) in connection with any civil or criminal proceeding which is not pending at the time of publication shall not be deemed to constitute contempt of court. (3) A person shall not be guilty of contempt of court on the ground that he has distributed a publication containing any such matter as is mentioned in sub-section (1), if at the time of distribution he had no reasonable grounds for believing that it contained or was likely to contain any such matter as aforesaid: Provided that this sub-section shall not apply in respect of the distribution of— (i) any publication which is a book or paper printed or published otherwise than in conformity with the rules contained in section 3 of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (25 of 1867); (ii) any publication which is a newspaper published otherwise than in conformity with the rules contained in section 5 of the said Act. 2