Conviction of GHCAA president: Supreme Court keeps in abeyance Gujarat High Court order

Supreme Court sentences President of Gujarat High Court Advocates Association, Yatin Oza for making scandalous remarks against state judiciary.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday kept in abeyance an order of the Gujarat High Court convicting Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association president Yatin Oza and sentencing him till the rising of the court for making scandalous remarks against the state judiciary.

The high court had also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on Oza and said that in case of default, he would have to undergo simple imprisonment for two months.

Oza was elected as the GHCAA president for the 19th time on December 20, 2025.

In a judgement pronounced today, a top court bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar directed that the full court of the high court shall undertake a periodic review of the appellant's conduct at an interval of every two years in the light of the undertaking submitted by him.

"The reasons assigned in the impugned order by the high court do not warrant any interference by this court.

"Yet, extending a final act of forgiveness, we are inclined to exercise our power under Article 142 of the Constitution to suspend/ keep in abeyance the conviction as well as sentence of the appellant as a consequence of this judgment indefinitely," the bench said.

The top court said it is seized of Oza's appeal against the high court's October 6, 2020, verdict, in which he was convicted.

However, the execution of the sentence was suspended for 60 days.

The top court later continued the suspension of the sentences awarded by the high court.

Later, the full court of the high court resolved to recall the restoration of Oza's "Senior Advocate" designation following a fresh incident of alleged misconduct in April 2024.

According to documents, the latest resolution follows what is being described as the "sixth incident" in a decades-long history of friction between Oza and the judiciary.

On April 9, 2024, during the hearing of a writ petition, Oza allegedly accused the presiding judge of "forum shopping".

The full court, after reviewing a video clip of the proceedings, noted that Oza appeared in the court on behalf of a respondent without a briefing counsel or a formal power of appearance.

The full court's April 15, 2024, decision stated that Oza's behaviour was "unbecoming of a senior advocate" and that his remarks were intended to "browbeat the court".

In 2020, Oza, at a press conference, called the Gujarat High Court a "gamblers' den".

The high court previously stripped Oza of his senior designation in July 2020.

However, in October 2021, the Supreme Court exercised its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to restore Oza's gown for a two-year probationary period starting January 1, 2022, calling it his "one more and last chance".