Gujarat Senior Yatin Oza writes to CJI on High Court judges’ allegiance to Modi, Amit Shah; Now facing contempt

A battle of the rarest kind has reached the Supreme Court. And it once again involves the Collegium, transfer of judges and a scathing criticism of two sitting judges of the Gujarat High Court..Senior Advocate Yatin Oza’s letters to Chief Justice TS Thakur criticising Justices MR Shah and KS Jhaveri as owing allegiance to ’11, Akbar Road and 7, Race Course Road’ has led to contempt action against Oza by the Gujarat High Court..Oza, who is also the President of the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association, has now moved the Supreme Court against contempt proceedings initiated by the High Court and managed to get a stay on the same..The matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Friday last week before a Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh. The court took the case on board and stayed the contempt proceedings..Senior Advocate Harin Raval entered appearance on behalf of Respondent, Khemchand Rajaram Koshti..Genesis – Oza’s Two scathing letters.Letter 1 – December 8, 2015.The case has its genesis in the proposed transfer of sitting High Court judge, Justice MR Shah. As per Oza’s first letter written to the Chief Justice of India on December 12, 2015, the Collegium then headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu had taken a decision to transfer Justice MR Shah from Gujarat High Court to Madhya Pradesh High Court. Justice Shah’s response was sought regarding the same and it was sent to Chief Justice Dattu. It is Oza’s allegation that,.“It is a matter of deep regret that the said written response was never ever placed before the collegium by the then Hon’ble Chief Justice H.L. Dattu till the date of his retirement. I do not even for a moment say as to whether Hon’ble Justice M.R. Shah should be transferred or not but certainly collegium has to decide as to whether response forwarded by Hon’ble Justice M.R.Shah should be accepted or proposal to transfer him on the basis of tentative decision taken by the collegium be forwarded to union of India. What signal will it send to the society and more particularly amongst the legal fraternity? I am sure your lordships would appreciate the rumours that roam around in view of above stated facts, which does not reflect ideal functioning of collegium system and in such a case people have a right to assume and presume what they honestly feel.”.The letter then speaks about the laptop scandal involving another sitting judge, Justice KS Jhaveri. It is then no holds barred from Oza as he takes a strong dig at the two judges stating that,.“Apart from above allegation not only lawyers but all those connected with the institution including media know one thing, is that neither of the two judges named above bear the true faith and allegiance to the constitution of India and the laws instead thereof their faith and allegiance is mortgaged at 11, Akbar road New Delhi and 7, Race Course Road New Delhi.”.Letter 2 – April 9, 2016.In this letter written to the Chief Justice of India a few weeks back, Oza narrates an incident that happened in the Gujarat High Court. He says that an advocate, who is a BJP functionary, openly stated that the party will protect Justice Shah and he will not be transferred. In Oza’s words,.“I strongly recollect that on 17th February, 2016, one Advocate (content deleted as per footnote 1 ), a senior functionary of Bhartiya Janata Party (B.J.P), in presence of Hundred Advocates, openly, without any fear, boldly made a statement “Let the Collegium recommend transfer 10 times of Hon’ble Justice M. R. Shah, we know how to protect him, because ultimately, we know how to dodge it and frustrate it.” Everybody present there took it so lightly, including myself, and virtually laughed out….I feel that we were fools to take the statement of (content deleted as per footnote 1) so lightly, as we find that he has been proven to be 100% right!”.Oza then goes on to state that the transfer file of Justice Shah is still lying at the Prime Minister’s office. The object is to delay his transfer till another Senior judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court is transferred, so that Justice Shah goes to Madhya Pradesh High court as a senior judge..“….. the file containing recommendation of Justice Shah’s transfer, still lies at the Prime Minister’s Office which I assure you will not be cleared until the Senior Judge of Madhya Pradesh is elevated as Chief Justice or is transferred. And Government shall not and will not clear his files till the time as stated above so that on transfer Justice Shah goes as a Senior Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. A loud and clear message has gone, that whatever may be the law, it is the wish and will of the Government that would prevail and not of the Collegium..Sir, Hon’ble Prime Minister ,if has cleared one and every file related to the transfer of High Court Judges, except one, speaks volumes about proximity as mentioned earlier by me. Till the time of dictating this letter,only one file remains pending with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Office. There is no reason to sit tight over this one single file in as much as the Hon’ble Prime Minister has a right to refer back but has no right to sit tight over the files.”.This second letter ends with a scathing indictment of the Gujarat High Court and how it was considered as a “High Court of the Government of Gujarat” from 2002 till Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya took over as Chief Justice in 2009..“It is wholly up to Your Lordships to restore the glory of the Institution otherwise even to a layman much less lawyers there definitely exist a feeling that, from the day Chief Justice DM. Dharmadhikari, left Gujarat High Court on his elevation as a Supreme Court Judge on 04.03.2002 till the date Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya took over as the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on 09.12.2009, the High Court was never considered in the peoples mind as a premiere autonomous and independent institution but was considered to be the High Court of the Government of Gujarat and was viewed as a subordinate secretariat of the state.”.Contempt of court notice by Gujarat High Court.Subsequently, Oza tried to secure the Gujarat High Court Advocate Association’s post-facto approval for the two letters and it was to be put to vote on April 27. However, the same was opposed by certain lawyers and advocate Khemchand Rajaram Khosti filed a petition in Gujarat High Court seeking initiation of contempt against Oza..The High Court gave an urgent hearing to Khosti on the April 27 itself. The matter was heard by a Bench comprising Justice SR Brahmbhatt and BN Karia. The High Court after hearing the parties held that ordinarily, communication to the Chief Justice of India would not amount to contempt, but if the language of the communication is such that it scandalises the court, then the same could amount to contempt..“…we are of the prima-facie opinion that ordinarily a communication addressed to Head of the Institution in the form of complaint or seeking redressal of grievances couched in a proper language with due objectivity cannot be said to be falling under the purview of Contempt of Courts Act but if the same is couched in an intemperate language and is being used to scandalize the Judge and Court, then, the same would surely not permissible and would amount to Contempt of Court. In the instant case, the averments made in this petition and communication dated 9.4.2016 and the factum of putting the said communication for voting of the members of Bar Association would primafacie constitute a case for issuance of notice under Contempt of Courts Act and we are also of the view that the contents of letters would persuade the Court for issuance of notice under Contempt of Courts Act..The High Court, therefore, issued notice to Oza for contempt and stayed the voting..“Let there be a notice under the Contempt of Courts Act returnable on 2.5.2016 to respondents. In the meantime and till the returnable date, the respondents are restrained from indulging in any scandalous activity or holding official meeting and passing resolution on the subject matter as it is expressly prohibited and could be said to be contemptuous as per decision of Supreme Court in case of C. Ravichandran Iyer (supra).”.Suprem Court stays contempt – AM Singhvi appears for Oza.Oza then approached the Supreme Court against the said order..The matter was first mentioned before a Bench of Justices Anil R Dave and AK Goel. Justice Dave recused from the matter whereupon it was listed before the Bench presided by Justice Dipak Misra. The Court heard Singhvi, who appeared for Oza, and stayed the contempt proceedings against him. It, however, refused to interfere with the rest of the order..This would mean that the Advocates Association would be barred from meeting and passing any resolution regarding the two letters written by Oza..“Having heard learned counsel for the petitioner, we are, as advised at present, not inclined to vary or modify the order passed by the High Court and, accordingly, we direct that the said order shall remain in force till 12.05.2016. However, we direct that the contempt proceedings before the High Court shall remain in abeyance till 12.05.2016.”.The case will now be heard on May 12..Yatin Oza .Yatin Oza is known as an outspoken Senior Advocate. He was designated Senior Advocate at the age 39. He has served as President of Gujarat High Court Advocates Association 16 times. An ex-MLA, Oza was initially a member of the BJP. In 2001, Oza had left BJP and joined Congress party after some differences with Keshubhai Patel. He had contested elections against Narendra Modi in 2002 State Assembly elections and lost..After his brief stint with Congress party, he had returned to BJP in 2007. He is a strong sympathiser of Narendra Modi and has defended and spoken on behalf of Modi on various TV debates including on issues touching Modi’s personal life..In 2006, the High Court had initiated contempt against Oza on the ground that he had called a meeting of the High Court Advocates Association to discuss the contempt initiated against another advocate – Sharad Vakil, and that media was present in the Bar room. The said contempt proceedings were later quashed..Read the Supreme Court and High Court orders below..Image courtesy:.Yatin Oza.Justice MR Shah and Justice KS Jhaveri.Justice HL Dattu