Delhi High Court initiates criminal contempt against lawyer for calling judiciary 'corrupt'

The Delhi High Court recently initiated criminal contempt of court proceedings against a lawyer who called the judiciary corrupt [Gunjan Kumar & Anr v. Vedant]. 

In an order passed on September 19, Justice Amit Sharma noted that the lawyer named Vedant had made “reckless allegations of corruption in judiciary” which are “contemptuous, contumacious and scandalous in nature”. 

“The same tantamount to scandalising and lowering the authority of Court. It further tends to interfere with judicial proceedings and administration of justice. In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the present case, after perusing the material placed on record in the present petition, this Court, prima facie, is of the opinion that the respondent has, thus, committed “criminal contempt” as defined in Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971,” the Court said. 

It listed the case for further proceedings before the roster bench on November 19, 2025. 

The Court passed the order while hearing a civil contempt case filed against the lawyer for his repeated disobedience of an earlier civil court order and subsequent filings in related proceedings. 

In January 2024, despite previously tendering an unconditional apology for making allegations against judicial officers, Vedant sent an email containing inflammatory claims. He accused judges of taking bribes worth ₹50 crore to delay justice and used derogatory language to describe members of the judiciary.

The High Court also took note of Vedant's written submissions in his contempt petition before the Civil Judge, North West Delhi, where he accused opposing counsel and judges of collusion and corruption. 

Further, in his reply to the show cause notice, Vedant continued to make provocative statements, referring to “judicial terrorism, judicial emergency, judicial corruption and judicial collective conspiracy,” and alleging that the judiciary had “transformed goats into lions and lions into goats.”

After considering these statements, Justice Sharma initiated criminal contempt proceedings against the lawyer. 

The petitioners in the civil contempt case before the High Court were represented through Advocate Sumitra Choudhary, MK Raghav Raman, Nitya Sharma, Jasmine Sheikh and Mansi Aggarwal. 

Vedant appeared in person. 

[Read Order]