The Supreme Court Thursday handed a “last chance” to Advocate Yatin Oza, restoring for two years his senior designation which the Gujarat High Court had taken away while holding him guilty of contempt. Oza, the president of the Gujarat High Court Advocates Associations, has landed in trouble multiple times for his comments against judges. His most recent allegations came last year against a senior High Court judge as well as the court registry in a letter to the Chief Justice of India. A bench of Justices S K Kaul and R Subhash Reddy invoked the Supreme Court's power under Article 142 of the Constitution to give Oza the relief. Any extension of the two-year relief period, the top court said, would be for the High Court to decide. “We respect the views of the High Court but still endeavour to give one more and last chance to the petitioner. In a way this can really be done by recourse to Article 142 of the Constitution of India as there is merit in the contention of the learned counsel for the High Court that there is no real infringement of the fundamental rights of the petitioner,” said the bench. It added: “We are of the view that the ends of justice would be served by seeking to temporarily restore the designation of the petitioner for a period of two years from 1.1.2022. Needless to say that if there is any infraction in the conduct of the petitioner within this period of two years, the High Court would be well within its rights to withdraw the indulgence which we have given for two years.” The top court noted that this was not Oza’s “first run-in with the High Court, or, for that matter, the Supreme Court”. “The problem appears to be that the petitioner does not seem to keep a balance between his role as a senior counsel and as president of the Bar Association and, thus, crosses the Lakshman Rekha repeatedly,” the bench said. Citing a Gujarat High Court note, it said that Oza made utterances against two judges in 2006, “casting aspersions on their faith and their allegiance to the Constitution of India and the laws.” On March 21 last year, Oza wrote to the Chief Justice of India making serious allegations against a senior High Court judge in his capacity as president of the Bar Association, the order pointed out. “The petitioner then transgressed all limits by circulating the letter in the Bar Association’s WhatsApp group on 8.6.2020, three days after calling the High Court a ‘Gamblers Den’. The WhatsApp messages were circulated by holding a Press Conference 05.06.2020, thereby making allegations of impropriety against the Institution of the High Court itself,” the SC said. Following this, the HC initiated contempt proceedings against Oza and issued a notice to him, asking why the privilege of the gown should not be withdrawn. Oza said he submitted an apology to the high court but a full bench “unanimously found that his apology was not genuine”, the top court said. It was tendered after 41 days “as a last resort” the HC had concluded, saying that Oza in the meantime had made every attempt to justify his actions. Oza approached the top court against the decision. He said he had learnt his lesson and promised never to repeat his actions, pleading for an opportunity for redemption.
