Which one of the following statements is not correct?

Correct — C, the claim that Subordinate Courts in India are Courts of Record. A court of record is one whose proceedings are recorded for perpetual memory and admitted as evidence beyond question, and which has the power to punish for contempt of itself. The Constitution confers that status by name and on two courts only: Article 129 makes the Supreme Court a court of record and Article 215 does the same for every High Court. Subordinate courts have no such constitutional designation. They can bring a contempt to the notice of the High Court under the Contempt of Courts Act, but they do not hold the inherent power themselves, and their records are not conclusive in the way a court of record's are. That makes option (c) the statement which is not correct.

• (a)The Supreme Court of India is a Court of Record. — Article 129 provides in terms that the Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court, including the power to punish for contempt of itself. The statement is correct.
• (b)High Courts in India are Courts of Record. — Article 215 makes every High Court a court of record with the same powers. The statement is correct.
• (d)All Courts in India are not Courts of Record. — This says that not all courts in India are courts of record, which is exactly the position: the Supreme Court and the High Courts are, and the subordinate judiciary is not. A correct statement, and it is in fact the mirror image of the answer.

Being a court of record carries two consequences. The court's judgments and proceedings are preserved as records of evidentiary value that cannot be questioned when produced before any subordinate court, and they serve as precedent for later cases. And the court possesses an inherent power to punish contempt of itself, which exists independently of statute — the Contempt of Courts Act regulates the exercise of that power but does not create it. The High Courts additionally have power to punish contempt of courts subordinate to them.

Two features of this item repay attention. First, options (c) and (d) are logical opposites, so exactly one of them must be false; noticing that pair immediately halves the work. Second, option (d) is phrased with the negation buried in the middle — 'All Courts in India are not Courts of Record' — which reads awkwardly and invites a candidate to mark it as the odd statement. Read it slowly: it asserts that the class of courts of record does not include every court, which is true. The false statement is the affirmative claim about subordinate courts.

• Article 129 makes the Supreme Court of India a court of record.
• Article 215 makes every High Court a court of record.
• Subordinate courts are not courts of record and do not hold the inherent contempt power.
• A court of record's proceedings are preserved as evidence and cannot be questioned before a subordinate court.
• High Courts can punish contempt of courts subordinate to them as well as of themselves.

• Marking option (d) as false because its negation is awkwardly placed.
• Assuming every court can punish contempt of itself.
• Confusing the High Court's power to punish contempt of subordinate courts with those courts holding the power themselves.

Asked as a negative-stem item where two options are constitutional text, one is a logical restatement of the answer, and the false option extends a constitutional status downwards.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which article of the Constitution declares every High Court to be a court of record?

  • (a)Article 129
  • (b)Article 214
  • (c)Article 215
  • (d)Article 226

  Answer(c) Article 215 — the counterpart of Article 129 for the Supreme Court.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The power of a court of record to punish for contempt of itself is

  • (a)created by the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971
  • (b)inherent, and only regulated by statute
  • (c)exercisable only with the consent of the Attorney General in every case
  • (d)available to all courts in India

  Answer(b) inherent, and only regulated by statute — the Act regulates but does not confer the power.