New Delhi: Gulshan Pahuja, a man whom the Delhi high court has held guilty of criminal contempt for ‘undermining the authority’ of two district judges and attempting to bring the judicial system into ‘disrepute’, has been sentenced to the maximum possible term of six months’ jail.A bench of the Delhi high court comprising Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja in their decision last week also fined Pahuja Rs 4,000 in connection with the two contempt cases it found him guilty in.Pahuja, who advocates for judicial reform by way of recording of court proceedings and expedient delivery of verdicts among other things, was pulled up after he uploaded interviews to his YouTube channel naming three Delhi district judges and alleging that one cannot hope to receive justice from their courts.In another video he criticised the Supreme Court, using a Hindi expletive to suggest that the apex court has been making a fool of people, and said that the Indian judiciary as a whole has not been effective at dispensing justice.When two of the three district judges complained against him the Delhi high court took up contempt proceedings. Pahuja defended himself before the bench, arguing he had made bona fide criticisms and should not be stopped from doing so on grounds of contempt.He also reiterated his allegations against the judicial officers concerned as well as the entire judicial system, saying they “are not fully following established law and procedures”.Justices Chawla and Dudeja ultimately held that Pahuja was neither generating healthy debate on strengthening the judicial system nor making fair criticisms but that he had “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”.They said in their judgment dated April 21 that Pahuja “pronounced his verdict against the concerned judicial officers without any basis and thereby undermined their authority”. His remarks on the Supreme Court, they added, are “intended to mock the system, bringing it to disrepute and to lower its dignity and authority”.The bench found him guilty of criminal contempt of court under the 1971 Contempt of Courts Act.Later, when Pahuja appeared before the bench to be sentenced, he said on Saturday (May 16) that “the courts’ capriciousness is growing and I have no hope for any justice”. “Another term for this capriciousness is dictatorship,” he said before the high court.The bench recorded him as disputing his conviction on various grounds, declaring that he would not seek a reduction of his sentence and citing examples of freedom fighters refusing to ask for leniency from British courts.“As noted by us in this order hereinabove, 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,” Justices Chawla and Dudeja said, finding it fit to sentence Pahuja to the maximum sentence of six months’ jail in both cases, to be served concurrently, alongside a Rs 2,000 fine in each matter.However his sentence has been stayed for two months’ pending appeal before the Supreme Court.