Stormy scenes at Gujarat lawyers’ meet on Moily letter

GANDHINAGAR - Heated exchanges marked the meeting of the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association (GHCAA) in Ahmedabad Friday with the association president facing criticism for his letter to Law Minister M.Veerappa Moily on the delay in judges’ appointments and the latter’s rebuke.

Following the verbal duel, the meeting was adjourned till July 14.

Though the meeting was called to pass a resolution on the issue of appointment of judges to the state high court, members took association president Yatin Oza to task for the letter which provoked Moily to write back that the GHCAA president was “ignorant” of the facts and the law.

Moily also termed Oza’s letter as a “process of experimentation with untruth”.

Lawyers at the meeting asked Oza to apologise for his act but Oza refused to do so. Allegations were hurled at him charging him with ruining the image of the bar to serve his political ambitions. Oza had joined the Congress and even contested against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, only to walk out and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In his letter to Moily June 11 seeking to know why more judges were not appointed at the Gujarat High Court despite the fact that the court was run with two thirds of its sanctioned strength of 42 judges, Oza said that the law minister could not settle his grievances against Modi by affecting the people of Gujarat.

“To settle your personal score, do not treat the people of Gujarat as aliens and the state of Gujarat as not a part of Union of India. Until now your actions and conduct lead one to believe in no uncertain terms that your actions are revengeful and absolutely malicious,” Oza wrote.

Moily, in his reply, made it clear that there was not a single proposal (on appointment of judges) held up either in his office or in the department of justice.