[3] It was run by the registrar in-charge and the secretary of the sports, youth and cultural activities department; ex-offcio.

In April 2015, the state government appointed Bhagyesh Jha, a Gujarati writer and retired IAS officer, as the new chairman of the Akademi without any election.

[6] This resulted in the Autonomous Academy Agitation (Swayatta Akademi Andolan) led by Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, the oldest literary institute in Gujarat and several Gujarati writers including Manishi Jani, Shirish Panchal, Dhiru Parikh, Chandrakant Topiwala, Bharat Mehta, Paresh Naik and Raju Solanki.

In March 2016, the Gujarati poet Harsh Brahmbhatt declined the award which had been conferred to him by the Akademi for his book.

[8][12] Dhiru Parikh, along with other writers, submitted a public interest litigation to the Gujarat High Court.