Contempt by disobedience of court order or undertaking, etc.
4.—(1) Any person who —
(a)
intentionally disobeys or breaches any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court; or
(b)
intentionally breaches any undertaking given to a court,
commits a contempt of court.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), intentional disposal by a garnishee, otherwise than in accordance with law or by leave of the court, of any property attached in his or her hands or under his or her control, is contempt of court.
(3) Without limiting subsection (1), a person commits a contempt of court if the person —
(a)
being legally bound to produce or deliver any document to the court, intentionally omits to so produce or deliver up the document;
(b)
being legally bound to bind himself or herself by oath or affirmation to state the truth, refuses to so bind himself or herself;
(c)
being legally bound to state the truth on any subject to the court, refuses to answer any question demanded of him or her touching that subject by the court in the exercise of the lawful powers of the court; or
(d)
refuses to sign any statement made by him or her, when required to sign that statement by a court lawfully competent to require that he or she sign that statement.
(4) Subject to subsections (5), (6) and (7), any contempt of court referred to in subsection (1) or (2) may be waived by the aggrieved party and such waiver relieves from liability the person who commits the contempt.
(5) The court may, in its discretion, disallow the waiver of any contempt of court mentioned in subsection (1) or (2) in any of the following circumstances:
(a)
the Attorney-General has authorised investigations pursuant to section 22 for the contempt of court;
(b)
proceedings have been commenced in respect of the contempt of court;
(c)
the contempt of court is of such a nature that it interferes with, obstructs or poses a real risk of interference with or obstruction of the administration of justice;
(d)
it would be contrary to the public interest to allow the waiver.
(6) The court may, in granting any waiver of contempt of court under subsection (4), impose such conditions as it thinks fit.
(7) To avoid doubt, contempt of court referred to in subsection (3) may not be waived.
(8) A person who is not a party to an action commits contempt if he or she causes or abets the breach of any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court, with the intention of causing such breach or knowing that it would cause such breach.
(9) In this section —
“aggrieved party” means a party to the relevant proceedings for whose benefit any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court is given, made or issued, or any undertaking to a court is given, in proceedings other than a proceeding against a person in respect of any offence;
“undertaking given to a court” includes an implied undertaking given to a court.