Delhi High Court Sends Lawyer-YouTuber To Jail For Criminal Contempt After 'Taanashahi' Remark Against Judiciary

The Delhi High Court has sentenced a YouTuber and advocate Gulshan Pahuja to six months' simple imprisonment in two criminal contempt cases for scandalising the judiciary and lowering the authority of courts through his videos targeting judicial officers.

A division bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja observed that Pahuja had shown “no regret” or “course correction” despite being found guilty of criminal contempt.

The Court noted that during the hearing on sentence, Pahuja again made “scandalous remarks” against the judicial system, including statements that he expected no justice from Indian courts and likening judicial arbitrariness to “dictatorship”.

Pahuja had said that he expects no justice from the Indian judicial system and states 'adaalaton ki manmarzi badhti jaa rahi hai aur main koi nyay ki umeed nahi kar raha' and also states 'manmarzi ka dusra arth taanashahi hota hai'.

“The contemnor shows no regret for the same. He also does not suggest any course correction,” the Court observed, adding that he had in fact “compounds his contempt by making further scandalous submissions before this Court”.

The bench further said that failure to impose adequate punishment may “encourage him to repeat these acts in future and to embolden him in doing the same.”

Accordingly, the Court imposed the “maximum punishment” of six months' simple imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 2,000 in each contempt case, with sentences directed to run concurrently.

However, since Pahuja expressed his intention to challenge the judgment before the Supreme Court, the High Court suspended the sentence for 60 days under Section 19(3) of the Contempt of Courts Act.

Title: COURT ON ITS OWN MOTION v. SHIV NARAYAN SHARMA ADV. AND ORS. DEEPAK SINGH, ADVOCATE AND ANR

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