Delhi HC sentences YouTuber to six months jail for criminal contempt

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has sentenced YouTuber Gulshan Pahuja, who runs the channel "Fight 4 Judicial Reforms", to six months’ simple imprisonment in two criminal contempt cases for making derogatory and scandalous remarks against the judiciary and judicial officers.

A division bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 in each matter while observing that the contemnor had shown no remorse and had, in fact, compounded the contempt through further scandalous submissions made during the hearing.

However, the Delhi High Court suspended the sentence for 60 days to enable Pahuja to challenge its judgment holding him guilty of criminal contempt before the Supreme Court.

The Justice Chawla-led Bench said that despite being given an opportunity to make submissions on punishment, the contemnor questioned the conviction itself and, during oral arguments, made further scandalous remarks against 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 order said.

Rejecting his plea to recall the conviction judgment, the Delhi High Court said it could not sit in review of its earlier order and that the contemnor was free to challenge the same in accordance with law.

"As far as his submissions on our judgment dated 21.04.2026 are concerned, we cannot sit in review of the said judgment and the contemnor has full right and had an opportunity to challenge the same in accordance with law," the bench said.

It further recorded that during oral arguments, Pahuja made remarks such as "adaalaton ki manmarzi badhti jaa rahi hai aur main koi nyay ki umeed nahi kar raha (the wilfulness of the courts is constantly increasing and I am not hopeful of any justice)" and described the functioning of courts as "taanashahi (dictatorship)".

Advocate Harsh Prabhaka, amicus curiae appointed in the matter, submitted that Pahuja had shown "no course correction or remorse" and continued uploading videos targeting judicial officers despite earlier directions restraining him from doing so.

Considering the nature of the conduct, the Delhi High Court observed that leniency in such circumstances could embolden similar conduct in the future and that the case warranted maximum punishment.