YouTuber sentenced to six months jail over ‘Dictatorship’ remarks against Judiciary
The Delhi High Court sentenced YouTuber and advocate Gulshan Pahuja to six months’ simple imprisonment in two criminal contempt cases over derogatory remarks against the judiciary and judicial officers.
The court took strong exception to Pahuja’s repeated “tanashahi” (dictatorship) comments against the judiciary while appearing before the bench. During the hearing, he stated that he had “no hope of getting justice” and accused courts of functioning arbitrarily.
Pahuja runs the YouTube channel “Fight 4 Judicial Reforms”. The contempt proceedings began after three Delhi district judges — Charu Asiwal, Ajay Narwal and Ajay Singh Parihar — complained about videos uploaded by him in October 2024 targeting them personally.
According to the court, Pahuja had publicly named the judges and alleged that litigants could not expect justice if their matters came before them. In another video uploaded in March 2025, he reportedly used objectionable language while referring to the Supreme Court.
A division bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Ravinder Dudeja observed that Pahuja showed “no regret” and made further scandalous remarks even during court proceedings.
The High Court said failure to impose strict punishment could encourage similar conduct in future. It imposed the maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 2,000 in each contempt case, with both sentences running concurrently.
However, the court suspended the sentence for 60 days after Pahuja expressed his intention to challenge the verdict before the Supreme Court.
