What is contempt of court?
I believe you have all heard that the Supreme Court, which is hearing the ongoing election petition case, sentenced two people to various prison terms for criminal contempt. And just last week, two top officials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) narrowly escaped going to jail for the same offence.
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Even though in the case of the latter, they were not given a jail term by the nine-member panel of the Supreme Court, they were fined and made to sign bonds to be of good behaviour.
From the above, I believe you now know of the seriousness of the offence called contempt of court and the need for you to be educated what it’s all about.
Contempt, which is a law enshrined in the court acts, seeks to preserve the purity of the legal process. As we all know, the courts have the power to sit on cases.
If, however, people are allowed to engage in acts that disrespect the courts, including the judges who sit on the cases brought before them, nobody will have confidence in the courts.
When that happens, instead of people going to court for peaceful settlement of their grievances, they will take the law into their own hands and behave in ways that could bring chaos and conflict in the society.
It is to prevent these from happening that the law of contempt exists in our legal books.
In Ghana, we have criminal and civil contempt. In the cases I cited above, all the people involved were charged for criminal contempt.
Acts that constitute criminal contempt include disturbance at the court. Examples of this include making noise, such as chewing gum nosily, laughing uncontrollably and engaging in conversations on top of your voice during court proceedings.
Other examples are issuing threats, hindering the proceedings of the court and using abusive language among others.
Furthermore, if you have been asked by the court to show up as a witness and you refuse to show up, you can be charged for criminal contempt.
Compiled by: Augustina Tawiah / Junior Graphic / Ghana
