Contempt of the House
Topic: Parliamentary Procedure, Committees and Privileges · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Contempt of the House is any act, or failure to act, that obstructs a House, its members or its officers in their work, or is likely to do so. It does not need a specific privilege to be broken. That makes it wider than breach of privilege, which means violating one particular, named privilege. Every breach of privilege is a contempt, but not every contempt is a breach of privilege. The power to punish contempt is a collective privilege of each House under Article 105 (Art. 194 for states).
Example
In the Keshav Singh case (Special Reference No. 1 of 1964), a state assembly jailed a citizen for contempt. The Supreme Court held that courts can examine such a jailing.
Don't confuse with
- Breach of privilege: this is the narrower category. It means violating a specific privilege, such as a member's freedom of speech.
- Contempt of court: this obstructs the courts, not the legislature.
Related concepts
- Parliamentary privileges
- Individual privileges
- Collective privileges
- Bar on courts inquiring into parliamentary proceedings
- Breach of privilege
- Privilege motion
- Committee of Privileges
- Ethics Committee
- Keshav Singh case
- Raja Ram Pal case