"You Have To Re-establish Your Credibility With Your Own Court, We Will Keep The Contempt Hanging On Your Head":Supreme Court To Adv Yatin Oza

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ventured if the lifetime ban imposed on Mr. Yatin Oza to practice as a senior counsel can be kept in abeyance after the expiry of one year from when the full court of the Gujarat High Court had resolved to withdraw his designation, for 2-3 periods of six months each, during which the matter shall remain pending before the Supreme Court to monitor his conduct."We are keeping both the writ petition (against the withdrawal of the gown) and the contempt matter pending. After whatever period we fix, you may be given your gown back for sometime as an interim measure, during which we will monitor your conduct. Then the High Court can take a call whether he is worthy of this relaxation or not", said Justice S. K. Kaul.Advocate Nikhil Goel, for the High Court, expressed reservations regarding the matters being kept pending before the Supreme Court, submitting that it may encourage Mr. Oza to seek the intervention of the top court by moving applications time and time again."We will also give value to the High Court. We assure you that there will be no judicial review after that. We won't do that...Take it from us. We will agree with the view of the High Court. If he is given this second chance, we will watch his every move. He cannot afford to mess around. We also want to protect the institution of the High Court", said Justice Kaul.Mr. Goel agreed to put this suggested course of action to the High Court."We will keep the contempt hanging on your head. We will also keep this (withdrawal of the gown) hanging on your head. We will not dispose off either. We will look at how you conduct yourself in this period. Our impression is that you have said sorry earlier also. The gentleman has to learn. How can you be such a freewheeling person, when you have so much responsibility, so much recognition and so much going on for yourself? How can you sacrifice all this by being unmindful?", Justice Kaul directed at the senior counsel representing Mr. Oza."A mere apology does not condone everything that has been done. The only issue is to what extent should we go- should you get another chance is the issue. 100 mistakes have already gone by! This was your 101st utterance!", remarked the judge."You have to meet the needs of the bar but you have to be aware that you have youngsters following you. If you transverse a wrong path, they will also transverse that path after you. You have done something completely unacceptable, to say the least. You have erred very, very grievously on the first chance given to you (the Supreme Court in 2016 had granted relief to Mr. Oza against the contempt action initiated by the Gujarat High Court over a letter written by him to the CJI against 2 sitting HC judges)", Justice Kaul had expressed."Look at your press conference, the act of circulating letters, the WhatsApp messages saying that you have spoken to the CJI and two other collegium judges. You are basically trying to say 'I have access to the Supreme Court, do what you want and I will still get it done'! This is an indefensible action. I am not saying that you are not entitled to raise an issue before the concerned authorities. You could have written a confidential letter to the Chief Justice of India. He has his own mechanism of verifying its veracity. But you went around tom-tomming about it before the media as if you were some super-power! Whatever may have been the cause behind them, what utterances made by you at the press conference can you justify?", continued the judge.Objecting to the use of the understated expression "bad words" in respect of these utterances by senior advocate A. M. Singhvi, for Mr. Oza, Justice Kaul remarked, "Even if you have apologised unconditionally, this is in the background of the relief that were granted by the Supreme Court earlier (in 2016). After committing a murder, you cannot say 'I apologise'. You are not just writing to the Chief Justice, you are opening up about it in the press, you are defaming the system! You are not blaming just one judge but damaging the whole institution! On reading these utterances, this petition could have been thrown out summarily. It is out of deference (to the senior counsel representing Mr. Oza) that we are listening. Is this even capable of apology? With your experience, neither you (Dr. Singhvi) nor Mr. Datar (senior counsel Arvind Datar) can defend it. It is just that somewhere there is still some sympathy factor"During the course of the hearing, Mr. Oza himself had sought the permission of the bench to make a brief submission- "Previously, at the outset itself, I had used an adjective against myself. Your Lordships are right that there has to be a connectivity between the tongue and the mind which got lost in my case. And not just once, but twice or thrice. I have understood, I have realised and I assure Your Lordships that there will be no next time. If there is, whatever action is deemed fit by the High Court may be taken. What happened...

"You Have To Re-establish Your Credibility With Your Own Court, We Will Keep The Contempt Hanging On Your Head":Supreme Court To Adv Yatin Oza

Mehal Jain

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