Justice C.S. Karnan Becomes First HC Judge To Retire While Absconding

Calcutta High Court Judge, Justice Karnan, who has been evading arrest since May 9, retired on Monday, becoming the first High Court Judge to have retired while still absconding.Born on June 12, 1955, Justice Karnan was appointed as a Madras High Court Judge in 2009. According to reports, however, he will be denied a formal farewell ceremony as he faces an arrest based on the Supreme Court’s order.Justice Karnan had recently challenged the constitutional validity of the Contempt of Court Act, 1971 under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, as well as placed an application of recall of the orders against him. The Petition was, however, declared as non-maintainable by the Supreme Court Registry.This was in aftermath of an order passed on May 9, wherein the 7 Judge SC Bench had sentenced him to 6 months in jail after finding him guilty of contempt of Court. “On merits, we are of the considered view, that Sri Justice C.S. Karnan, has committed contempt of the judiciary. His actions constitute contempt of this Court, and of the judiciary of the gravest nature. Having found him guilty of committing contempt, we convict him accordingly. We are satisfied to punish him by sentencing him to imprisonment for six months. As a consequence, the contemnor shall not perform any administrative or judicial functions,” the 7 judge bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar had then observed.The Court had also refused to accept Advocate K.K. Venugopal’s suggestion that the Court should wait for Justice Karnan to retire, with the CJI thundering: “in contempt we do not distinguish… there is no color…sitting or non-sitting… if he thought we will not punish him as he is sitting, he is wrong.”Justice Karnan had also refused to be examined by a four-member team of psychiatrists who arrived at his residence to execute the Supreme Court order. The order for Justice Karnan’s check-up was passed after the bench was particularly miffed over two recent “judicial orders” passed by Justice Karnan (when he was restrained from issuing judicial or administrative orders), summoning the Judges of seven Judge Bench, and directing the Air Control Authority to not allow the seven SC Judges to travel abroad.He had further passed a bizarre order convicting Chief Justice of India Justice Khehar and other six Supreme Court Judges for various offences under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, sentencing them to 5 years imprisonment and fine. The Bench had then found that he was not in a position to defend himself now, and had directed the DGP, West Bengal to constitute a team of police personnel to get the examination conducted.You may read: A Peep into Justice Karnan’s Contempt Saga – Part-I, Part-II and Part-III by Namit SaxenaYou may also read: Justice Karnan – A Constitutional Conundrum by S. Sanal KumarThe build up to his transferNot a man unknown to controversies, Justice Karnan had made headlines when he had alleged that he was left out of the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy as he was from the scheduled caste. He had claimed that all participants were from the upper caste and that his name was removed in order to make way for a Junior Judge who belonged to the upper caste.He had then gone ahead and passed another order in May, 2015, requesting the Chief Justice to extend co-operation “without any interference with my Court’s proceedings and its Judicial Power in order to maintain the decorum of the Court and avoid an unhealthy practice of Judiciary in the interest of the general public. He also requested the Chief to avoid ego and stop acting in an autocratic manner to protect democracy.”The controversy had taken root with Chief Justice Sanjay Kaul constituting the recruitment committee comprising of Justices V. Dhanapalan, R. Sudhakar, D. Hariparanthaman, N. Kirubakaran and R. Mala to interview candidates for selection as Civil Judges. The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission chairman and other officers were to be part of the selection committee, which was scheduled to start oral interview of candidates from April 15 till April 21.On April 16, 2015, Justice Karnan had initiated suo motu proceedings, and had passed a judicial order questioning Justice Dhanapalan’s inclusion in the committee. He had alleged that latter had produced “bogus educational qualifications” about his bachelor and masters degree in law, and therefore had no locus standi to conduct the interview. He had even directed the CBI to inquire into his educational qualifications.He had also alleged that inclusion of Justices Sudhakar and Hariparanthaman, who hailed from the same community besides being relatives, would send a wrong signal about the fairness of selection. He went on to stay the CJ’s administrative order, and had restrained the public service commission chairman from conducting the interview of candidates for civil judge posts.“In order to control the mal-administration of My Lord Chief Justice, I am passing this suo-motu judicial order in the interest of...

Justice C.S. Karnan Becomes First HC Judge To Retire While Absconding

Apoorva Mandhani

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