New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday dropped contempt proceedings against senior lawyer of Gujarat High Court Yatin Narendra Oza after he tendered an “unconditional apology” for calling two high court judges close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.
Accepting Oza’s unconditional apology, a bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice C. Nagappan said that the contempt proceedings before the Gujarat High Court stands dropped.
Tendering unqualified apology, Oza, in a fresh affidavit, said that except in the proceedings before court, he would not speak on the issue in public.
Contempt proceedings were initiated against Oza before the high court after he in a letter to the Chief Justice of India, he had said that Justice M.R.Shah and Justice K.S. Jhaveri owned their allegiance not to the Constitution of the country but same was “mortgaged” at the residences of Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Oza, told the bench that the lawyer has tendered unqualified apology and in the light of it the matter should be put to rest.
Senior counsel K.K.Venugopal appearing for Gujarat High Court Advocate Association told the bench that bar association has reservation about what is happening. “If everything comes out it is not good for judiciary,” he said, telling the bench that the feeling of the bar can’t be disregarded, since, after all, it is also a member of the judicial family.
Senior counsel Harin Rawal, appearing for complainant Khemchand Rajaram Koshti, told the bench that Oza had, on an earlier occasion too, tendered a similar kind of apology but betrayed it and again spoke on the issue.
Doubting the sincerity of Oza in really putting a lid on the issue raked by him, Rawal wondered if apology was a tool to get out of contempt.
Seeking to put the issue at rest, senior counsel Venugopal said: “It is a wound that is being turned again and again. This should be closed and let there be peace and harmony.”
Another senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that Koshti wants to keep the pot boiling, and described him more loyal than the king.