Delhi High Court holds man guilty of contempt of court for saying judges were doing "illegal acts"

The Delhi High Court recently held a man guilty of criminal contempt of court after he posted a video on social media alleging that the judges of the Delhi High Court were doing “illegal acts” and passing orders in favour of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) [Sudha Prasad v Uday Pal Singh]..A Division Bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain watched the video and held that the accused, one Uday Pal Singh, very evidently lowered the dignity of the Court.“The aforenoted expression and the video posted by him in (sic) social media shows that the respondent has made contemptuous allegations against the Judges of this Court and has thereby lowered the dignity of the justice delivery system. Accordingly, we hereby hold him guilty under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971,” the Court said.The matter will be heard again on July 19 to decide on the quantum of sentence to be imposed on Singh..The Court passed the order while dealing with a criminal contempt petition filed by one Sudha Prasad against Uday Pal Singh.Prasad and Singh had been litigating over a property of around two bighas in the New Ashok Nagar area. They were contesting several civil and criminal proceedings against each other.On August 24, 2022, Singh posted a video on Facebook and Twitter condemning the orders passed by the High Court and made allegations against the judges..Some of the comments made by Singh in the video were :“I do not understand that what is your setting with DDA that you are passing every order in favour of DDA and are destroying earned money of public by way of destroying the house & family of public. Jai Hind.” “I only want to say that we do not have resources to go to the Supreme Court against your order. But you, sitting on the chair of justice, which is considered as equivalent of God in the eyes of litigant, are doing illegal acts day and night.”“This is a tradition of Hon'ble Justices of Delhi High Court that they hand over the land of private persons illegally to the DDA.”.Subsequently, Singh tendered an unconditional apology and tried to justify his conduct by saying that his intention was neither to defame the Court nor the judges. He further said that his intention was not to scandalise the judges or lower the majesty of the Court.However, the Court rejected the submissions and ordered him to remain physically present on the day of sentencing..Advocate Gagan Gandhi appeared for petitioner Sudha Prasad.Contemnor Uday Pal Singh was represented by advocates Kunal Khanna and Sonia Dhariwal..[Read Order]