Updated on
Summary Supreme Court has issued detailed verdict regarding Contempt Law, declaring it null and void.
Chief Justice remarked that the said law exempted to the people who had no respect for courts’ verdicts.The apex court had nullified the new contempt law approved by the parliament on August 3 by its short verdict. Now the detailed verdict comprising 134 pages have been announced. Chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry composed the verdict with his hand.It should be kept in mind that the new contempt law had exempted the prime minister and other officials from contempt of court. About 27 writ petitions were filed against this law.The detailed verdict has said that the aforesaid law is against the basic principles of the constitution; it tried to decrease the powers of judiciary.The detailed judgment also said that nobody or official can be exempted from rule of law in contempt of court and criminal cases. Under Section 248 of the Constitution, nobody is above rule of law; the court may award penalty to anybody who commits contempt of court.In this case, Justice Jawad S Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif also wrote down additional notes of seven pages each.Jawad S Khawaja said that civilized nations are using the contempt of court law in order to implement the verdicts announced by courts. Furthering his statement he said that the world history records that the accused who committed contempt of court were penalized under this law accordingly.Supreme Court larger bench comprising five judges conducted hearing of the case and none of them differed with it in any sense.
