JUDGMENT :

J.K. Maheshwari J.

‘The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.’ –

Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky’s)

1. In the present appeal, we are called upon to determine the validity of the conviction of the Appellant, Mr. Yatin Narendra Oza, President of the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association (in short ‘GHCAA’) and senior advocate, held guilty of ‘criminal contempt’ vide the impugned order dated 06.10.2020 of the Gujarat High Court (for brevity ‘High Court’) under Section 2(c) (i)¹[“criminal contempt” means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which —

(i) scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or

(ii) prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or

(iii) interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner;] of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 (hereinafter ‘1971 Act’). He has been sentenced vide order dated 07.10.2020 til