New Delhi, Apr 22 The Delhi High Court has sentenced a YouTuber to six months imprisonment in contempt cases over his videos that "personally attacked" certain judicial officers and "lowered" the dignity of the judicial system.
A bench of justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja said Gulshan Pahuja neither showed any regret nor suggested any "course correction", and not punishing him might embolden him.
"In fact, he maintains that what he did was with the intent of improving the judicial system. 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," the bench observed.
"We are of the opinion that these cases call for the imposition of the maximum punishment on the contemnor. We, therefore, impose the punishment of simple imprisonment for a term of six months along with a fine of Rs.2000/- on the contemnor, that is, Mr.Gulshan Pahuja, in each of these matters. The sentence shall run concurrently for these matters," the court ordered on May 16.
Since the contemnor intended to challenge the decision, the court suspended the sentence for 60 days to enable him to approach the Supreme Court.
The court asked Pahuja to surrender before the registrar general after 60 days if a suspension order is not passed by the apex court.
While finding the YouTuber guilty of criminal contempt of court, the bench had on April 21 observed that the content on his channel 'Fight 4 Judicial Reforms' was not protected as "free speech" under the Constitution.
It had stated that a disgruntled litigant may sometimes vent out his frustration by making "uncharitable remarks", which are to be "taken in our stride", but in this case, Pahuja did not vent out his frustration as fair criticism and his intent was only to scandalise and lower the image of the judicial officers and the judiciary.
