Article 129 of the Constitution of India, it reads:
129. Supreme Court to be a court of record:-The Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the power of such a court including the power of punish for contempt of itself.
 The Article on its plain language vests this Court with all the powers of a court of record including the power to punish for contempt of itself.
The expression Court of Record has not been defined in the Constitution of India. Article 129 however, declares the Supreme Court to be a Court of Record, while Article 215 declares a High Court also to be a Court of Record.
A court of record is a court, the records of which are admitted to be of evidentiary value and are not to be questioned when produced before any court. The power that courts of record enjoy to punish for contempt is a part of their inherent jurisdiction and is essential to enable the courts to administer justice according to law in a regular, orderly and effective manner and to uphold the majesty of law and prevent interference in the due administration of justice.
According to Jowitt, Dictionary of English Law, First Edition (p. 526) a court of Record has been defined as:
“A Court whereof the acts and judicial proceedings are enrolled for a perpetual memory and testimony, and which has power to fine and imprison for contempt of its authority.”
Wharton’s Law Lexicon, explains a court of record as:-
“Record, courts of, those whose judicial acts and proceedings are enrolled on parchment, for a perpetual memorial and testimony; which rolls are called the Records of the Courts, and are of such high and super eminent authority that their truth is not to be called in question. Courts of Record are of two classes – Superior and Inferior. Superior Courts of Record include the House of Lords, the Judicial Committee, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and a few others. The Mayor’s Court of London, the County Courts, Coroner’s Courts, and other are Inferior Courts, of Record, of which the County Courts are the most important. Every superior court of record has authority to fine and imprison for contempt of its authority; an inferior court of record can only commit for contempts committed in open courts, in facie curice”
Nigel Lowe and Brenda Sufrin in their treatise on the Law of Contempt (Third Edition) (Butterworths 1996), while dealing with the jurisdiction and powers of a Courts of Record in respect of criminal contempt say:
“The contempt jurisdiction of courts of record forms part of their inherent jurisdiction.
The power that courts of record enjoy to punish contempts is part of their inherent jurisdiction. The juridical basis of the inherent jurisdiction has been well described by Master Jacob as being:
‘the authority of the judiciary to uphold, to protect and to fulfil the judicial function of administering justice according to law in a regular, orderly and effective manner.’
Such a power is not derived from statute nor truly from the common law but instead flows from the very concept of a court of law.”
All courts of record have an inherent jurisdiction to punish contempts committed in their face but the inherent power to punish contempts committed outside the court resides exclusively in superior courts of record.
Superior Courts of records have an inherent superintendent jurisdiction to punish contempts committed in connection with proceedings before inferior courts.”
