Madras High Court Directs Chennai Police Commissioner To Investigate Cases Against Ex-Judge Karnan; DGP To Supervise

A Division Bench comprising of Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and Justice R. Hemalatha has directed the Commissioner of Police, Chennai to monitor the investigation, under the supervision of Director General of Police.

The direction has come in a petition filed by the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu against the retired High Court Judge, CS Karnan, for passing rape threats and sexually coloured remarks against wives of judges, women lawyers and female court staff. The Council had sought registration of FIR/ initiation of appropriate proceedings against such "unfortunate utterances".

It was submitted by Senior Advocate S. Prabhakaran for the Council that despite such 'obnoxious behaviour' of Karnan, no action whatsoever was taken by the Police for registration of the Council's complaint, despite clear indications of commission of cognizable offences (Lalithakumari v. State of UP & Ors., in 2014 (2) SCC 1).

Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan however informed the Court that the Central Crime Branch has already registered against a case Karnan for the alleged commission of the offences under Sections 228, 509, 294B and 506(ii) of IPC, Section 67A of the IT Act, Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment Act and Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. He submitted that since the contents of the Council's complaint disclosed similar offences, a fresh FIR is not registered.

At this juncture, the Court pointed out to the PP that the contents of 35 and odd videos uploaded by Karnan would defame, denigrate the concerned persons and it may constitute a successive / different cause of action.

The Prosecutor then assured the Court that necessary and suitable advice shall be given to the Investigating Officer in this regard.

The PP had also told the Court that the Police had removed 2 objectionable YouTube URLs shared by Karnan and 15 of his videos were deleted. However, despite Police action, the former Judge continued to indulge in such uncharitable activities by uploading more of such videos and creating new channel on YouTube.

In this regard the Court drew the State's attention towards Section 80 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which confers power upon the police officer and other officials to enter and search.

The Division Bench said,

"It is very pertinent to point out at this juncture that under Section 149 of Cr.P.C., it is the duty of the police to prevent cognizable offences and therefore, it is not necessary on the part of the police to wait for the commission of the offences and prevention is always better than cure."

The matter is now listed for hearing on November 30 through physical hearing. The Respondents have been asked to a counter affidavit with supporting documents as to the effective steps/ action taken in the light of the complaints against, by the said date.

Background

The original criminal petition against Karnan was first listed before a Single Judge of the High Court who deemed it appropriate to put the matter before the present Division Bench, as it is already seized with another writ petition moved by the Council on the issue.

The plea alleges that in a viral video shared by one Dr. M. Dhanasekaran, Karnan has used indecent, obnoxious, un-parliamentary language, threats against the wives of the Judges of the High Court and Supreme Court, both serving and retired.

The objectionable video links were ordered to be blocked by a Division Bench ofthe High Court on November 10. Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha had observed therein:

"It is rather unfortunate to note that the ninth respondent (Karnan), who held an important constitutional post, has gone to such a level to repeatedly make scandalous, obscene, vituperative & unparliamentary remarks against former & sitting judges of SC & HC and their family members, especially women."

In 2017, the Supreme Court had found Karnan guilty of contempt for making scandalous corruption allegations against its sitting and retired judges.

SC Finds Justice Karnan Guilty Of Contempt Of Court, Awards Six Months Jail Term

Referring to this order, Prabhakaran said in the Court,

"Despite being punished by the Supreme Court of India, the former Judge continues to indulge in obnoxious behaviour and repeatedly uploading videos through social media such as YouTube and Facebook with the help of one Dr.M.Dhanasekaran – the contents of the same would disclose that it is full of vulgarity, lacking in decency and decorum, defaming the former Judges of the Supreme Court of India as well as some of the present sitting Judges of the Apex Court as well as this Court and that apart, the family members of them, especially the womenfolk are also targeted."

Case Title: Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry v. DGP, Chennai & Ors.

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