HC sentences YouTuber to 6 months in prison after remarks comparing courts to ‘dictatorship’

The Delhi High Court has sentenced YouTuber Gulshan Pahuja to six months in jail and a Rs 2,000 fine for criminal contempt of court, Bar and Bench reported. The court found certain  remarks in his videos and during court hearings deeply disrespectful to the judiciary.

Three judicial officers had brought certain videos on Pahuja’s YouTube channel, ‘Fight 4 Judicial Reforms,’ to the court’s attention. According to the report, the videos showed Pahuja interviewing two advocates, Shiv Narayan Sharma and Deepak Singh, who allegedly made derogatory remarks about judges and courts during those interviews.

Both advocates subsequently offered unconditional apologies, explaining they had not consented to the interviews being posted online and were unaware of the objectionable thumbnails and banners attached to the videos. The court accepted their apologies and dropped proceedings against them.

Pahuja, however, stood his ground, framing his comments as public interest advocacy aimed at judicial reform and a push for audio-video recordings of court proceedings, Bar and Bench reported. The court found him guilty of contempt on April 21, then held a separate hearing on the appropriate sentence.

During proceedings, Pahuja made statements in Hindi that drew a direct comparison between the courts and a dictatorship, according to the report. He said he expected no justice from the Indian judicial system, and that “adaalaton ki manmarzi badhti jaa rahi hai aur main koi nyay ki umeed nahi kar raha” – meaning the courts’ arbitrary actions were growing and he held no hope of receiving justice. He went further, saying “manmarzi ka dusra arth taanashahi hota hai” – that arbitrariness is synonymous with dictatorship.

“The contemnor shows no regret for the same. He also does not suggest any course correction. In fact, he maintains that what he did was with the intent of improving the judicial system. As noted by us in this order hereinabove, he, in fact, compounds his contempt by making further scandalous submissions before this Court and thus, evidently he is neither repentant nor deserves any mercy,” said the Division Bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja, according to Bar and Bench.

However, the sentence has been kept at abeyance for two months in order to allow Pahuja to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.

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