Justice CS Karnan row: Controversial Calcutta High Court judge retires; still evading arrest

New Delhi: Controversial Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan, who has been evading arrest since 9 May after being sentenced to six months imprisonment for contempt of court by the Supreme Court, retires on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_3194870” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Justice CS Karnan. Bar and Bench[/caption] Sixty-two-year-old Justice Karnan, who retires on his birthday, has the dubious distinction of being the first sitting high court judge to be awarded a jail term by the apex court. Born on 12 June, 1955, he has been evading arrest since a seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar passed the unprecedented arrest order against him. Despite several attempts, Justice Karnan has failed to get any relief from the apex court’s vacation benches which refused to hear his plea seeking a stay of its jail term order. His lawyers had also claimed to have approached President Pranab Mukherjee for exercising his power to stay the apex court’s order, but till now, no relief has come to the judge. The seven-judge bench had asked the West Bengal director general of police to take Justice Karnan, who has been on a warpath with the Supreme Court for the last several months, into custody. After being sentenced to six months jail, Justice Karnan had on 12 May moved the apex court for relief, saying neither the high courts nor their judges, were “subordinate” to it. He had sought a recall of the apex court’s order, contending he could not be held guilty of contempt of court. Justice Karnan had said the Contempt of Courts Act was a “cathartic jurisprudence which belonged to the Dark Ages, the era of inquisition and torture, distinct from the classical Roman Law which constitutes the foundation of modern jurisprudence”. He had also sought a stay on all “further proceedings” pursuant to the 9 May order. Earlier, the apex court had issued a bailable warrant against him to secure his presence in the contempt case. He had appeared before the apex court on 31 March, a first in Indian judicial history, and had asked for the restoration of his powers as a precondition for his re-appearance, but the plea was rejected. Justice Karnan, who enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on 11 March, 2016. He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations and run-ins with its then chief justice and fellow judges. The high court judge had on 15 February, 2016 stayed his transfer order, which was suspended by the Supreme Court. The apex court had earlier even asked the chief justice of the Madras High Court not to assign him any judicial work.