Fugitive Calcutta High Court judge’s plea will be heard by Indian Supreme Court

The Calcutta High Court Judge CS Karnan told the Indian Supreme Court through his lawyer on Thursday that he wants to challenge his conviction for contempt of court and sought the recall of the apex court’s May 9 order “as no charge was framed.”

Justice Karnan’s lawyer MJ Nedumpara mentioned the plea before a bench, the media reported.

India’s Chief Justice JS Khehar told the lawyer that the bench would consider the plea since it has been mentioned.

Justice Karnan had been sentenced to six months in jail by the Supreme Court, but he could not be arrested to serve the term as he had absconded.

The Indian Express quoted his aide to say that he might have crossed the border into Bangladesh or Nepal.

The chief justice asked Nedumpara to show papers authorising him to represent the judge.

The lawyer told the Bench that Justice Karnan was in Chennai on May 10 and showed his vakalatnama to Chief Justice Khehar.

Nedumpara also told the Bench that 12 advocates on record have refused to represent Karnan.

Karnan has had no judicial work assigned to him since he fell out with his fellow judges and the Supreme Court, but he has been passing orders against Supreme Court judges including Chief Justice Khehar.

The Supreme Court had ordered a medical examination to ascertain the state of his mental health but he had refused to take the test saying he was of sound mind

Karnan’s grouse is that the higher Indian judiciary is biased against him because he is a Dalit, a depressed community and that it is corrupt.

Karnan, who is facing contempt charges for degrading the judiciary and making allegations of corruption against several Supreme Court judges, had held the eight judges guilty of harassing a "Dalit Judge" (him), with a "common intention".

The 12-page "order" said the accused have "committed" an offence "punishable under the SC/ST Atrocities Act of 1989 and amended Act of 2015".

However, the Supreme Court had already restrained Karnan from discharging any judicial and administrative functions and directed all authorities and tribunals not to take cognisance of any "purported" order passed by him.

The other judges named in the "order" are Justice Dipak Misra, Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice R Banumathi.

While seven of the judges were members of the bench that initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Justice Karnan, Justice Banumathi along with Chief Justice Khehar had restrained him from discharging any judicial and administrative functions.

Karnan had also imposed fines of 100,000 rupees on three counts under three-sub-sections of section 3 of the SC/ST Atrocities Act on all the eight judges. The sentences would run concurrently, he said, and asked Delhi's Commissioner of Police to execute the order.

The judges have to pay the amount, within a week of receiving the order, to the National Commission, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes he said. In case they fail to pay, they would undergo further six months imprisonment.

Justice Karnan also ordered Justice Banumathi to pay him 20 million rupees in compensation, and directed the Supreme Court Registrar General to recover the amount from her and remit it to his account.

He also referred to his Apr 13 order asking the judges (except Justice Banumathi against whom he had not passed any order that day) to pay 140 million rupees to him as compensation and decreed that the order stood "declared and suitable for execution" as it has not been challenged.

He directed the Supreme Court Registrar General to recover the amount from the salary of the seven judges and remit it to his account.

"If the accused are aggrieved by this order, they are at liberty to approach parliament.

Until such time the accused 1-8 shall not hold office and not be permitted to deal in any cases on the file of the Supreme Court besides any administrative orders," Karnan said, pronouncing the order from the 'make-shift court' at his residence Rosedale Tower in New Town in Kolkata's North Eastern fringes.

Karnan directed the union and state governments not to avail the services of the eight judges "since they are functioning out of law for their personal gain".

He also ordered the government to pay him 285,000 rupees in relief and directed the "District Magistrate of Kolkata" to make necessary administrative arrangements to provide the relief in cash or kind.

In January, Karnan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi naming 20 "corrupt judges", and sought a probe against them to curb "high corruption" in the Indian judiciary.

The Supreme Court then issued him a contempt notice, an unprecedented step against a sitting judge. After he failed to appear, the court on Mar 10, in another first time move, issued a bailable warrant against him.

But the judge escalated the row by ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation probe against the seven judges.

Karnan appeared before the seven-judge bench on Mar 31, but renewed the confrontation on April 13, passing a "judicial order" against them for "violating" the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act and also asked them to appear before him.

Later, he directed the Air Control Authority in New Delhi not to allow the Chief Justice of India and the other six judges to travel abroad.

The Supreme Court asked him to undergo a medical test on May 4, but Karnan not only refused to comply, but also hit back by directing Delhi Police to conduct a psychiatric test of the seven judges.

Meanwhile, the Chennai-based The Hindu said in an editorial that the Supreme Court could have avoided ordering the arrest of the judge and could have allowed him to retire at the end of his term on June 12. In any case, he had been deprived of all power by the Supreme Court and could do no harm any more.

This would be the first case of a High Court judge being arrested and imprisoned. As a Dalit “crusading against corruption in high places” Karnan could become a political hero and sharpen caste tensions, the paper warned.

It pointed out that the higher judiciary in India has not evolved a system of controlling judges yet. It was also dismayed by the silence of India’s political class  on the issue.