Meet Justice AS Oka, SC judge who delivered verdicts on last working day today - two days after mother's death

Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, the third-most senior judge of the Supreme Court, retires today, 24 May. Justice AS Oka deliver at least 10 verdicts on Friday, his last working day – two days after the death of his mother.

Justice Oka rose after his last day as a Judge of the Supreme Court. “Lawyers thanked him for his service to the nation and his ability to outrage at injustice,” legal news website LiveLaw said in a post on X.

Justice Oka was informed about the death of his mother, Vasanti Oka in Mumbai on 21 May after , after attending a felicitation by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCOARA). Her funeral was held in his ancestral home in Thane around on Thursday. Justice Oka attended the funeral. A day after attending his mother’s funeral, Justice Oka sat on benches in the court today.

‘Privacy of adolescents’

One of the cases that Justice Oka was scheduled hear today was a suo motu case that the Supreme Court took up on the right to privacy of adolescents in the backdrop of controversial remarks made by the Calcutta High Court last year. After delivering the verdicts, Justice Oka sat in Court number 1 with Chief Justice of India BR Gavai.

“The Ceremonial Bench comprising Hon’ble the Chief Justice, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Abhay S Oka and Hon’ble Mr Justice Augustine George Masih in Chief Justice’s Court will sit after the pronouncement of judgments in Court No. 3,” a notice by the SC for lawyers read.

Justice Oka met his mother last week when he had gone to Mumbai to attend a function organised in honour of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai.

“I don’t approve [of] one tradition which is followed in the Supreme Court that [the] retiring judge should not work on the last day. It will take some time for us to get rid of that tradition but at least I have one satisfaction that [on the] last day, I will be sitting in a regular bench and pronouncing some judgments,” Justice Oka said at theSCOARA felicitation asserting that he ‘hates’ the word retirement and instead of thinking of retirement, he took on more work in the last couple of months.

Who is Justice AS Oka?

Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka was born on 25 May, 1960. He did BSc, LLM. From University Of Bombay and was enrolled as an Advocate on 28 June, 1983.

Justice Oka began practice at the Thane District Court in the chamber of his father. He was elevated as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court on August 29, 2003, and became a permanent judge on November 12, 2005. On May 10, 2019, he took oath as the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. He was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court on August 31, 2021.

Justice Oka is known for judgements protecting personal liberties and free speech. As Karnataka HC Chief Justice, a bench he headed had declared that prohibitory orders imposed by the Bengaluru police to curb protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act were illegal.

As SC judge, Justice Oka’s bench had quashed an FIR against a Maharashtra college professor booked for his WhatsApp status critical of the abrogation of Article 370 and for wishing Pakistan on its independence day.

“Every citizen of India has a right to be critical of the action of abrogation of Article 370 and the change of status of Jammu and Kashmir,” the bench had said in March last year.

Introducing Justice Oka during Wednesday’s felicitation, SCAORA Secretary Nikhil Jain said, "His judgments resonated across the fabric of our civil society. His deep legal acumen and humaneness set him apart always. His judgments were always grounded and far reaching."

‘Stood like an unshakable rock’

SCAORA President Vipin Nair said that from being a passionate lawyer to an exemplary jurist, Justice Oka has an intimate understanding of the proceedings of the bar. 

"He has stood like an unshakable rock. We must not forget Oak tree is the strongest in the wild. I was told that a court stenographer lost many of the drafts and Justice Oka recreated all of them," Nair was quoted as saying by legal news website Bar and Bench.