Contempt of Court in the Syari ah Courts

The purpose of this article is to examine the Syari ah courts power to punish for contempt. In the last nineteen years, the state authorities have recognised the importance of expressly providing the Syari ah courts with the power to punish for contempt. There are specific categories of contempt of court before the Syari ah courts specified in the relevant statutes, though these categories are not consistently specified in terms of the categories themselves, how the categories are defined and to what extent a party can be punished for committing these categories of contempt. Cases of the Syari ah Courts examined here showed consistency with contempt before the civil courts, with majority of the contempt cases being committed are disobeying a court order and the contempt in the face of the court. Statutes applicable to the Syari ah courts have provided different sentencing limits for different categories of contempt. This article explores the scope of contempt of court in the Syari ah Courts, their sentencing limit and weaknesses. The research methodology adopted in this article is doctrinal research