Passing Of Any Law By Parliament Or State Legislature Can't Be Held To Be Contempt Of Court : Supreme Court

While closing the 2007 Salwa Judum case, the Supreme Court recently observed that any law made by the Parliament or a State Legislature cannot be held to be an act of contempt of Court."We also observe that the passing of an enactment subsequent to the order of this Court by the legislature of the State of Chhattisgarh cannot, in our view, be said to be an act of contempt of the order passed by this Court...The promulgation simpliciter of an enactment is only an expression of the legislative function and cannot be said to be an act in contempt of a Court unless it is first established that the statute so enacted is bad in law constitutionally or otherwise", said a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma.While rejecting a plea that State of Chhattisgarh's enactment of the Chhattisgarh Auxiliary Armed Police Force Act, 2011 amounted to contempt of Court, the Court opined that every State Legislature has plenary powers to pass an enactment and such an enactment continues to have the force of law unless it is declared ultra vires of the Constitution by a constitutional Court.While Courts can address interpretative doubts and questions regarding validity of such enactments, "the interpretative power of a Constitutional Court does not contemplate a situation of declaring exercise of legislative functions and passing of an enactment as an instance of a contempt of a Court", it said.The Court also noted, "We must remember that central to the legislative function is the power of the legislative organ to enact as well as amend laws. Any law made by the Parliament or a State legislature cannot be held to be an act of contempt of a Court, including this Court, for simply making the law".Emphasizing on the doctrine of separation of powers, it further said that any legislation can be challenged only on the twin prongs of legislative competence and constitutional validity."A legislature has, inter alia, the powers to pass a law, to remove the basis of a judgment or in the alternative, validate a law which has been struck down by a Constitutional Court by amending or varying it so as to give effect to the judgment of a Constitutional Court which has struck down a portion of an enactment or for that matter the entire enactment. This is the core of the doctrine of separation of powers and must always be acknowledged in a constitutional democracy such as ours", the Court observed.Case Title: NANDINI SUNDAR & ORS. VERSUS STATE OF CHATTISGARH, WRIT PETITION(S)(CIVIL) NO(S). 250/2007Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 662Click here to read the order

Passing Of Any Law By Parliament Or State Legislature Can't Be Held To Be Contempt Of Court : Supreme Court

Debby Jain

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