Supreme Court Slaps Contempt Charge On Sitting Hc Judge

It will be like a tight rope walk to tame the errant judge in view of his judicial position and community background.

- Sanjeev Sirohi

In an unprecedented step, the Chief Justice of India JS Khehar took the extreme step on 7 February 2017 of deciding to initiate contempt of court proceedings against Justice CS Karnan, a sitting judge of Calcutta High Court, for continuously levelling innuendos against Chief Justice and other Judges of the Madras High Court.

The Supreme Court had listed contempt proceedings against one of its own tribe on 8 February. The case will be heard by a Bench comprising Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and six senior-most judges of the apex court – Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur, PC Ghose and Kurian Joseph.

Justice Karnan has levelled very serious allegations against very senior judges of the higher judiciary and this directly affects the image of the judiciary as a whole which alone explains why the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of Justice CS Karnan’s letters and conduct and decided to slap contempt charge on him.

This is the first time that a situation has come to such a pass that a constitutional court has had to initiate contempt of court proceedings against a Judge of the High Court or a Supreme Court. There were times when the CJI after receiving inquiry reports against a sitting Judge, had recommended to Parliament to initiate proceeding for the removal of the erring Judge.

The bench has also restrained Justice CS Karnan from dealing with any judicial or administrative work till further orders.

It may be recalled here that Justice CS Karnan had plunged the Madras High Court into a major crisis in 2015 by threatening contempt of court proceedings against Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul accusing him of interfering in his judicial work and seeking a CBI probe into alleged forged educational qualification of another High Court Judge.