The Antics of Justice Karnan

Calcutta High Court Judge Justice CS Karnan passed yet another “order” directing seven senior-most judges of the Supreme Court to appear before him at his “Rosedale Residential Court”. The controversial judge has called upon Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur, PC Ghose and Kurian Joseph to justify themselves as to why they should not be declared guilty of violating the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Atrocities) Act.

What is the order?

This “order” is in response to the Judge being barred from performing any administrative and judicial duties have (due to the pending contempt case against him). There are speculations that the said “order” was passed as retaliation to CJI Khehar questioning J Karnan’s mental stability during the last hearing. He further passed restraining order against the seven Supreme Court judges from performing their judicial and administrative work. He also demanded Rs. 14 crore as compensation from the seven judges and urged the Supreme Court to freeze the pension benefits of the said judges until his compensation is recovered.  He directed the Central and State governments to not avail services of the said judges and appealed to foreign countries to not issue visas to the judges. He has taken this a step further by invoking his “extraordinary writ jurisdiction” once more to summon the judges to his residence to decide the quantum of punishment each one of them must face.

What is the response to the said “order”?

The seven judge constitutional bench has issued a bailable arrest warrant against J Karnan in response to the said Judge’s actions and “orders”. Further, J Karnan is expected to file his written submissions by April 28 (scheduled date for the contempt case to be heard by the seven judge constitutional bench)

Assessment

The actions of J Karnan have brought shame to the Indian Judiciary time and again. J Karnan over the period of time has displayed disregard to court proceedings as well as the laws in India. Using Caste to justify his actions clearly goes against the code of conduct of the Judges in India. These actions of J Karnan question the standard and quality of the existing judges in India. The present collegiums system should address issues such as this and monitor the quality of Judges appointed in the higher judiciary.