Supreme Court Suspends Six-Month Sentence Imposed On YouTuber Gulshan Pahuja In Contempt Of Court Case
|The Supreme Court today suspended the six-month imprisonment sentence imposed on a YouTuber who was held guilty of contempt of court over videos that "personally attacked" certain judicial officers and "lowered" the dignity of the judicial system.
A bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sheel Nagu agreed to hear the petition filed by Gulshan Pahuja who has challenged the orders of the Delhi High Court that convicted and sentenced him for having committed criminal contempt of court.
While issuing notice on the plea, the bench said that Pahuja be released from custody.
Pahuja filed the plea in the Apex Court through Advocate Jugul Kishor Gupta.
In April, the Delhi High Court had held him guilty of contempt of court.
It had said that Pahuja's content on his channel 'Fight 4 Judicial Reforms' was not protected as "free speech" under the Constitution.
"He has personally attacked three judicial officers and even imputed that in case a litigant's case is listed before them, such litigant should not expect justice. What is the foundation of such over-sweeping remarks against the judicial officers?" the High Court had said.
It had said that no judicial officer is expected to be 100 per cent correct all the time, and a litigant, therefore, has the option to approach the higher court on appeal.
But an attack on a judicial officer's integrity or competence must be done with cogent evidence as a baseless accusation undermines his authority and interferes with the dispensation of justice by him without fear or favour, the high court had said.
In May, the High Court imposed a sentence of six months of simple imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 2,000 on him.
With PTI Inputs