OPINION OF THE COURT
JONES, Chief Justice.
While on trial before a judge and jury for the crimes of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption [394]*394of minors, Richard Charles Haefner, appellant, testified that, during the ten hours of custody which preceded his preliminary arraignment, he was mistreated by the police who arrested and interrogated him. Roughly two hours of the interrogation consisted of the administration of a lie detector test to appellant. At the beginning of the trial, however, the trial judge ruled inadmissible, at sidebar, all polygraph evidence. See Commonwealth v. Gee, 467 Pa. 123, 354 A.2d 875 (1976); Commonwealth v. Brooks, 454 Pa. 75, 309 A.2d 732 (1973). Appellant was informed of this directive by his trial counsel, Mr. Heinly, and made no mention of the polygraph test in his direct testimony. The cross-examination which followed was aimed at attacking appellant’s credibility by showing that, in the midst of the alleged police brutality, he made no real attempt to seek outside assistance from friends, family or counsel:
“Q: The question before you now is, did you ever complain to anybody at home concerning your treatment?
A: Yes, I believe I did.
Q: Whom did you complain to?
A: My mother.
Q: What did you tell her?
A: Gees, I don’t recall . . . [S]he asked me if Henry should come down, and I said, no, no, don’t send Henry down.
Q: Who’s Henry?
A: Henry Haefner, my cousin, who is an attorney. He was the only attorney that I could think of, that I knew of in all of Lancaster. I never needed an attorney before for anything. And I was so ashamed or so embarrassed that they would even ask me questions like that, that I didn’t want any family member to know that police were asking me questions about such a God awful thing like that . . . .” Notes of Testimony, pp. 539-540.
[395]*395Appellant was then asked about his appearance before District Justice Joseph Lees:
Q: After you were in there all these hours and you were finally taken before Justice Lees, did you make any complaint to Justice Lees about the way you were treated?
A: Should I answer that?
[By Mr. Heinly]: Yes.
A: Yes, I did.
Q: Who was present, when you made these complaints?
A: Sergeant Snyder and Justice Lees and Henry Haefner and me, and Cadet McMullen was in the room at the same time.
Q: How about Crump, was he there ?
A: He was not there.
Q: And what complaint did you make to Lees ?
A: I complained to Lees that if I, that I had agreed to take a lie detector test from Detective Jan Walters and Detective Walters told me, I passed the test. And we had an agreement that if I passed that test, they would not bring any charges, and they brought charges anyway. Now I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to mention that but I have to tell the whole truth. He did ask me, he did give me a lie detector test. Id., pp. 542-543. (Emphais added).
For this violation of the trial judge’s ruling against the admission of polygraph evidence, appellant was found in contempt of court, fined five hundred dollars and sentenced to serve one month in prison.
In general, “one is guilty of contempt when his conduct tends to bring the authority and administration of the law into disrespect. The right to punish for such contempt is inherent in all courts.” Levine Contempt Case, 372 Pa. 612, 618, 95 A.2d 222, 225 (1953), cert. denied 346 U.S. 858, 74 S.Ct. 72, 98 L.Ed. 371 (1953). But the mere showing of noncompliance with a court order or misconduct impeding the administration of justice is never sufficient, alone, to prove contempt. This last point was emphasized in a case involving criminal contempt, In re Contempt of Myers and Brei, 83 Pa.Super. 383, 387-88 (1924):
“But, as was well said in People v. Kelly, 24 N.Y. 74, ‘. . . the conduct charged as constituting the contempt must be such that some degree of delinquency or misbehavior can be predicated of it; for if the act be [397]*397plainly indifferent or meritorious, or if it be only the assertion of the undoubted right of the party, it will not become a criminal contempt by being adjudged to be so . . . . [W]here the act is necessarily innocent or justifiable it would be preposterous to hold it a cause of imprisonment.’ ” (Emphasis added).
See also Schlesinger Petition, 367 Pa. 476, 81 A.2d 316 (1951); Commonwealth v. Sheasley, 102 Pa.Super. 384, 157 A. 27 (1931).
It was certainly preposterous, in the instant case, to charge this appellant with contempt, causing him to pay a substantial fine and be imprisoned. The record reveals that throughout the trial appellant was respectful toward the court. His demeanor was consistently proper and polite. Moreover, his good faith attempt to comply with the court’s instruction is attested to by the fact that the appellant failed to introduce the polygraph evidence in his detailed and extensive direct testimony concerning the police interrogation. Only on cross-examination, with his liberty and reputation at stake and his credibility under fire, did appellant inject the forbidden evidence into the controversy. In such a setting, a layman like appellant could not possibly be expected to respond to the prosecutor’s question with a calculated answer intended to deviate from what he contended to be the truth while preserving the integrity of the court’s ruling. As we observed in Commonwealth v. Fletcher, 441 Pa. 28, 32, 269 A.2d 727, 730 (1970), “we cannot expect a layman to interpret questions as if he were an attorney.” Appellant’s response demonstrated awareness of the court’s evidentiary ruling but absolutely no disrespect for the court’s authority.
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OPINION OF THE COURT
JONES, Chief Justice.
While on trial before a judge and jury for the crimes of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption [394]*394of minors, Richard Charles Haefner, appellant, testified that, during the ten hours of custody which preceded his preliminary arraignment, he was mistreated by the police who arrested and interrogated him. Roughly two hours of the interrogation consisted of the administration of a lie detector test to appellant. At the beginning of the trial, however, the trial judge ruled inadmissible, at sidebar, all polygraph evidence. See Commonwealth v. Gee, 467 Pa. 123, 354 A.2d 875 (1976); Commonwealth v. Brooks, 454 Pa. 75, 309 A.2d 732 (1973). Appellant was informed of this directive by his trial counsel, Mr. Heinly, and made no mention of the polygraph test in his direct testimony. The cross-examination which followed was aimed at attacking appellant’s credibility by showing that, in the midst of the alleged police brutality, he made no real attempt to seek outside assistance from friends, family or counsel:
“Q: The question before you now is, did you ever complain to anybody at home concerning your treatment?
A: Yes, I believe I did.
Q: Whom did you complain to?
A: My mother.
Q: What did you tell her?
A: Gees, I don’t recall . . . [S]he asked me if Henry should come down, and I said, no, no, don’t send Henry down.
Q: Who’s Henry?
A: Henry Haefner, my cousin, who is an attorney. He was the only attorney that I could think of, that I knew of in all of Lancaster. I never needed an attorney before for anything. And I was so ashamed or so embarrassed that they would even ask me questions like that, that I didn’t want any family member to know that police were asking me questions about such a God awful thing like that . . . .” Notes of Testimony, pp. 539-540.
[395]*395Appellant was then asked about his appearance before District Justice Joseph Lees:
Q: After you were in there all these hours and you were finally taken before Justice Lees, did you make any complaint to Justice Lees about the way you were treated?
A: Should I answer that?
[By Mr. Heinly]: Yes.
A: Yes, I did.
Q: Who was present, when you made these complaints?
A: Sergeant Snyder and Justice Lees and Henry Haefner and me, and Cadet McMullen was in the room at the same time.
Q: How about Crump, was he there ?
A: He was not there.
Q: And what complaint did you make to Lees ?
A: I complained to Lees that if I, that I had agreed to take a lie detector test from Detective Jan Walters and Detective Walters told me, I passed the test. And we had an agreement that if I passed that test, they would not bring any charges, and they brought charges anyway. Now I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to mention that but I have to tell the whole truth. He did ask me, he did give me a lie detector test. Id., pp. 542-543. (Emphais added).
For this violation of the trial judge’s ruling against the admission of polygraph evidence, appellant was found in contempt of court, fined five hundred dollars and sentenced to serve one month in prison.
In general, “one is guilty of contempt when his conduct tends to bring the authority and administration of the law into disrespect. The right to punish for such contempt is inherent in all courts.” Levine Contempt Case, 372 Pa. 612, 618, 95 A.2d 222, 225 (1953), cert. denied 346 U.S. 858, 74 S.Ct. 72, 98 L.Ed. 371 (1953). But the mere showing of noncompliance with a court order or misconduct impeding the administration of justice is never sufficient, alone, to prove contempt. This last point was emphasized in a case involving criminal contempt, In re Contempt of Myers and Brei, 83 Pa.Super. 383, 387-88 (1924):
“But, as was well said in People v. Kelly, 24 N.Y. 74, ‘. . . the conduct charged as constituting the contempt must be such that some degree of delinquency or misbehavior can be predicated of it; for if the act be [397]*397plainly indifferent or meritorious, or if it be only the assertion of the undoubted right of the party, it will not become a criminal contempt by being adjudged to be so . . . . [W]here the act is necessarily innocent or justifiable it would be preposterous to hold it a cause of imprisonment.’ ” (Emphasis added).
See also Schlesinger Petition, 367 Pa. 476, 81 A.2d 316 (1951); Commonwealth v. Sheasley, 102 Pa.Super. 384, 157 A. 27 (1931).
It was certainly preposterous, in the instant case, to charge this appellant with contempt, causing him to pay a substantial fine and be imprisoned. The record reveals that throughout the trial appellant was respectful toward the court. His demeanor was consistently proper and polite. Moreover, his good faith attempt to comply with the court’s instruction is attested to by the fact that the appellant failed to introduce the polygraph evidence in his detailed and extensive direct testimony concerning the police interrogation. Only on cross-examination, with his liberty and reputation at stake and his credibility under fire, did appellant inject the forbidden evidence into the controversy. In such a setting, a layman like appellant could not possibly be expected to respond to the prosecutor’s question with a calculated answer intended to deviate from what he contended to be the truth while preserving the integrity of the court’s ruling. As we observed in Commonwealth v. Fletcher, 441 Pa. 28, 32, 269 A.2d 727, 730 (1970), “we cannot expect a layman to interpret questions as if he were an attorney.” Appellant’s response demonstrated awareness of the court’s evidentiary ruling but absolutely no disrespect for the court’s authority. Appellant understood his primary obligation as witness to be “to tell the whole truth.” Surely, he was not mistaken in that belief. The words of the late Mr. Chief Justice Charles Alvin Jones are as appropriate a means of disposing of this criminal contempt or[398]*398der as they were in the case of Commonwealth v. Lofton, 389 Pa. 273, 280, 133 A.2d 203, 206 (1957):
“How, possibly could a witness be held in contempt for refusing to testify to what he insists is untrue and is willing to testify to what he affirms to be the truth.”
Order reversed.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 28th day of January 1977, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County, Criminal Division, finding appellant, Richard Charles Haefner, in contempt and sentencing him to pay a fine of five hundred dollars and serve one month in prison is reversed.
NIX, J., did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.
POMEROY, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
Appellant was found to be in contempt at a hearing on the contempt citation held on February 5, 1976. The court denied appellant’s Motion to Stay the one month prison sentence pending direct appeal to the Supreme Court, and appellant was immediately [396]*396imprisoned. On February 13, 1976, this appeal was filed and contemporaneously therewith, a Petition for Supersedeas was also filed requesting the Supreme Court to order the appellant released from prison pending determination of this appeal. A hearing on the petition was held before Mr. Justice Nix on February 17, 1976. At the conclusion of the hearing, Justice Nix granted the relief requested in the Petition for Supersedeas and appellant was released from prison, having already served almost half of his sentence.