Former judge of the Madras High Court and Calcutta High Court, Justice CS Karnan, has passed away in Chennai on Friday. His funeral will be conducted on Saturday (November 14). He was 71 years old and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Chennai.
Justice Karnan, born as Karunanithi, was appointed as a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. In 2016, he was transferred to the Calcutta High Court.
It may be noted that Justice (Retd) Karnan was the first serving judge to be jailed. A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and observed that Justice Karnan had committed contempt of court, the judiciary and the judicial process and sentenced him to 6 months imprisonment. Though the SC had ordered him to be arrested forthwith, Justice Karnan had evaded arrest for more than a month, after which he was arrested. During this time, Justice Karnan retired from the judicial service.
The Contempt Proceedings were initiated against Justice Karnan after he passed an unusual order convicting the Chief Justice of India and six other Supreme Court Judges for offences under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and sentenced them to 5 years' imprisonment. Justice Karnan had also made allegations against the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court and other judges of the High Court.
Another case was also registered against Justice Karnan in 2020, after videos of him threatening the judges of the higher judiciary surfaced online. In the video, Karnan was seen uttering abuses and obscenities against the judges and their family members and even threatening the women relatives of the judges with sexual violence. The Madras High Court had later granted bail to Karnan considering his unconditional apology and his medical condition.