The Delhi High Court has sentenced YouTuber Gulshan Pahuja to six months’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹2,000 after holding him guilty of criminal contempt of court for making scandalous remarks against the judiciary through his YouTube videos and statements made before the Court.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja observed that Pahuja repeatedly attacked the credibility of the judicial system and even compared judicial functioning to dictatorship.

During the hearing, Pahuja allegedly stated that “adaalaton ki manmarzi badhti jaa rahi hai aur main koi nyay ki umeed nahi kar raha” (the arbitrary actions of the courts are increasing and I am not expecting any justice). He further remarked that “manmarzi ka dusra arth taanashahi hota hai” (the synonym for arbitrariness is dictatorship).

The Court, in its May 16 order, said that imposing a lesser punishment would only embolden him to repeat such conduct in the future.

“We also find that by not imposing adequate punishment on him, we may encourage him to repeat these acts in future and to embolden him in doing the same,” the Bench observed.

The contempt proceedings arose from controversial videos uploaded on Pahuja’s YouTube channel, “Fight 4 Judicial Reforms,” where advocates Shiv Narayan Sharma and Deepak Singh were interviewed and certain derogatory remarks against judges and courts were allegedly made.

The matter reached the High Court after three judicial officers flagged the videos and sought initiation of contempt proceedings.

While advocates Shiv Narayan Sharma and Deepak Singh tendered unconditional apologies, claiming they neither consented to the uploads nor knew about the objectionable thumbnails and banners, the Court accepted their explanations and dropped proceedings against them.

However, the Court found that Pahuja continued defending his statements in the name of judicial reforms and transparency in court proceedings. In a judgment delivered on April 21, the High Court held him guilty of contempt and later conducted a separate hearing on sentencing.

The Bench noted that Pahuja showed no remorse and instead compounded his contempt by making further scandalous remarks during the sentencing hearing.

“The contemnor shows no regret... he is neither repentant nor deserves any mercy,” the Court said while awarding the maximum punishment prescribed for criminal contempt.

The sentence has, however, been kept in abeyance for 60 days to enable Pahuja to approach the Supreme Court of India in appeal.