On Tuesday, the High Court of Gujarat held Lawyer Yatin Oza, president of the HC’s Bar Association, guilty of contempt of court for terming the HC a ‘gambling den’ & levelling allegations of forum shopping during a press conference.
After holding the Advocate guilty of contempt, the bench of Justice Sonia Gokani and Justice N V Anjaria posted the hearing on quantum of punishment for Wednesday.
Oza had addressed a press conference on June 5 as a president of the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association & accused the Court registry of favouritism & corruption. He alleged the High Court registry gives preferential treatment to the rich, smugglers & traitors, & would kick the poor away. He likened the High Court administration to a gambling den. He was insisting on the reopening of courtrooms on the grounds that Junior Lawyers were without work.
The High Court took suo motu cognizance of Oza’s “scandalous expressions & indiscriminate as well as baseless utterances”, & said that he had attempted to cause serious damage to the prestige & majesty of the high court & to demoralize HC administrative wing.
The Judges opined that the “scurrilous remarks” were made without making any inquiry with the chief justice about the reality. Moreover, after the hearing, the bench also took into consideration an inquiry report by three judges on Oza’s accusations about the registry’s functioning. The report had given a clean chit to the registry & concluded that Oza’s claims were baseless.
While initiating contempt proceedings, the HC had suggested the full court re-consider Oza’s status of a designated Senior Lawyer. The full court withdrew the senior counsel designation from him, which led him to approach the Apex Court.
Oza had earlier found himself in similar situation but he had tendered an apology & the courts had pardoned him. However, the HC wasn't ready to accept his apology.
Oza took up the issue of listing of cases by the High Court registry when pressure was mounting, according to him, from junior members of the Bar because judicial proceedings, except in urgent cases, were stalled. He was insisting that Courtrooms should be reopened because most lawyers were facing financial problems.
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