Justice CS Karnan – A History of Tumult

Justice CS Karnan created history of sorts, when he became the first judge of a Constitutional Court to be sentenced to imprisonment for contempt of court. A 7-judge Bench of the Supreme Court passed the order sentencing him to 6 months in prison..Born on June 12, 1955 in Cuddalore District, Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan studied law at Madras Law College. In 1983, Justice CS Karnan enrolled at the Bar and started practicing on the civil side..He was elevated as a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. Later, in 2016, he was transferred to Calcutta High Court after a highly publicised spat with the then High Court Chief Justice, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and the Supreme Court..Thus, Karnan J. is no stranger to controversy. Starting in 2011, Karnan J. has hogged the limelight many a time for his conduct within and outside the court..Below is a list (and a rather long one) of Justice Karnan’s maverick acts after he became a judge of the High Court..November 2011: Allegation of caste bias against brother judges.This was one of the first instances of the judge showing his non-conformist tendencies. He made a representation before the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) alleging that he was being mistreated on caste grounds by his brother judges at the Madras High Court..January 2014: Rushing to the court during hearing.This might have been one of the first instances when the national media sat up and took notice of the judge. He apparently rushed into the courtroom of a Division Bench of the Madras High Court, when hearing was in progress and voiced his protest against certain recommendations made by the collegium for judgeship..The judge stated that the process by which twelve names were recommended for elevation to the Bench was “not fair” and that he would file an affidavit against the recommendations..The legal fraternity, perhaps thought it was just a one-off act; but they were mistaken..April 2015 onwards: Madras High Court v. Justice Karnan.This was an episode very reminiscent of the current tussle with the Supreme Court – only difference being that the opposite party was Madras High Court..The episode can be best learnt by breaking it down into a timeline..April 16, 2015: Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had constituted a recruitment committee comprising five judges to interview candidates for the same. The composition of the Committee did not go down well with Karnan J. He, therefore, initiated suo moto proceedings against the administrative decision of the Chief Justice and stayed the same..He also directed that the recruitment committee must have two judges from minority communities to give a fair representation to all communities..April 17, 2015: Justice Karnan’s suo motu order was placed before a Division Bench of Justices S Tamilvanan and CT Selvam, which stayed the April 16 order. When Justice Karnan came to know of this, he swung into action and directed the Registry to place the matter before him on the judicial side on April 30..April 30, 2015: When the matter came up for hearing on April 30, he reiterated his earlier order of April 16 and also threatened the Chief Justice with contempt of court proceedings..“This court requests My Lord the Chief Justice to extend his cooperation without any interference with my court’s proceedings and its judicial power in order to maintain decorum of the court and avoid an unhealthy practice of judiciary in the interest of the general public. My deep request to the Chief Justice is to avoid ego and stop acting in an autocratic manner to protect democracy”, the order said..May 11, 2015: The action shifted to Supreme Court as the Madras High Court appealed against the April 30 order passed by Karnan J. The Supreme Court proceeded to issue notice to Justice Karnan and also restrained him from hearing or issuing any directions in the writ petition before the High Court..November 7, 2015: Even as the case was pending in the Supreme Court, the judge decided to up the ante. He wrote a letter to then Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, alleging belittlement and harassment by Justice Kaul. In the letter, he alleged that Justice Kaul chose to allot insignificant portfolios to him and he was overlooked for judges who are junior to him. Citing the “harassment and belittlement” meted out to him, Justice Karnan expressed his desire to proceed on a long leave to ensure that the decorum of the court is not disturbed..February 12, 2016: The Supreme Court collegium decided that enough was enough and an order for transfer of the judge to Calcutta High court was issued..This provoked the judge who allegedly requested the personal secretary of Chief Justice SK Kaul to come to his residence where he was met with the choicest of abuses. The Madras High Court was, therefore, forced to file a fresh affidavit in Supreme Court detailing the above conduct of the judge. In the affidavit it was stated that Karnan J. had taken suo moto cognizance of his own transfer order and was proposing to pass orders on it..February 15, 2016: This was a day of intense drama as the case came up for hearing in Supreme Court. The court considered the contents of the affidavit submitted by the Madras High Court and the submissions of Senior Advocate KK Venugopal, who appeared for the High Court. It then allowed the Madras High Court Chief Justice to refrain from assigning any judicial work to the controversial judge on account of his transfer. The Court also categorically held that operation of all orders passed by Justice Karnan after the issuance of transfer order shall remain stayed..2.25 pm the same day: After the Supreme Court passed the order, Justice Karnan took up his own transfer order and stayed the same. He passed the interim judicial order through a letter addressed to Chief Justice Thakur, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Law Minister marked on it..February 23, 2016: The bickering finally ended when Justice Karnan wrote to then Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, Justice JS Khehar and Justice R Banumathi explaining his conduct. In the letter written to the three judges, Justice Karnan admitted that order was a result of his, “mental frustration resulting in the loss of his mental balance.”.He then left the south for the east and took oath as judge of Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016. However, the appeal filed by Madras High Court still remained alive before the Supreme Court..February 2017: Supreme Court v. Karnan J. – the present controversy.A letter purportedly sent by Justice Karnan to the Prime Minister containing allegations of corruption against sitting judges of the Supreme Court and various High Court triggered strong reaction by the Supreme court..A suo-moto contempt case was initiated against the judge and posted for hearing before a 7-judge bench. When the matter came up for hearing on February 8, the Court issued notice to the sitting judge and also withdrew all judicial and administrative work assigned to him as a High Court judge..When he failed to appear for the next hearing as ordered, the Court issued a bailable warrant against the judge. The judge entered appearance for the next hearing when the Court proceeded to direct him to file his written submissions..In a show of defiance, Karnan J. vociferously argued that the Court should either restore his judicial work or punish him right away..“If my judicial work is not restored, I will not make any submissions, I will not appear before Your Lordships. Your Lordships can impose any punishment right away. I am mentally disturbed because you withdrew my judicial work”, he said..The Bench then rose even as Karnan J. continued to protest vociferously..Subsequently, in a bizarre turn of events, Justice CS Karnan passed an order sitting in Banga Bhavan, New Delhi restraining the seven Supreme Court judges, who heard contempt case against him, from performing their judicial and administrative work..For the next few weeks, he continued to pass judicial orders against the seven Supreme Court judges who were hearing his case. When another order by Supreme Court to conduct medical examination of the judge was disobeyed, the Supreme Court resorted to the drastic step to punish the sitting High court judge by sentencing him to six months imprisonment..What now?.While the legal niceties of the order by Supreme Court continue to be grey, the case filed by Madras High Court is still pending before the Supreme Court. The latest grievance raised by the High Court was that judge was not vacating his official bungalow at Chennai or returning the case files which were given to him while he was a judge of Madras High Court. After the matter came up for hearing before Supreme Court, Karnan J. relented and vacated his bungalow..The case is now listed before a regular Bench and is likely to be taken up after summer vacation. The fate of this case is, therefore, uncertain since the judge will retire from service next month.