Justice Karnan had skipped previous hearings in contempt case initiated against him by the Supreme Court
Calcutta High Court's Justice CS Karnan appeared before the Supreme Court on Friday, defiant as ever. Justice Karnan refused to apologise for accusing 20 top judges of corruption that provoked the court to start the contempt case and demanded that
judicial work taken from him in February be restored. When the seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar declined, the 61-year-old judge declared he would not appear before the court again and dared the court to "send me to jail".
The 61-year-old judge is
the first to face contempt proceedings and have a bailable warrant issued against him. He had responded to the initial summons from the top court by 'ordering' the CBI to probe Supreme Court judges for atrocities against him, a Dalit judge.
On his way out after Friday's hearing, the judge also said he would 'order' the Supreme Court Registrar not to allocate any work to the seven judges including the Chief Justice of India "as they are in contempt of my order".
At the hearing, the Supreme Court bench that asked Justice Karnan if he was mentally fit has given him four weeks to file a written response to the contempt of court notice first issued to him on February 8.
"Restore my work or next time, I will not appear before your court," the combative judge demanded, angry that warrants were issued against him. "I am not a terrorist or anti-social person".
The hearing had started with the bench giving him an opportunity to withdraw his complaint.
"Do you stand by your complaint against the 20 judges? Or do you wish to withdraw your complaint and unconditionally apologise," the bench asked him. He refused the offer, insisting that the complaint he had given "was very much under the law". The court, shot back: "Despite being a judge you don't know the procedure."
Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar also wondered if he was "mentally fit" to understand the gravity of the contempt proceedings. "We can see that his mind (Justice Karnan) is not clear and he is not able to comprehend what he is doing," the Bench observed. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, however, added: "There is no question of non-comprehension, he is very clear."
The court had taken a dim view of his complaints against 20 sitting and retired judges to curb what he had called "high corruption" in the judiciary. When he did not respond to summons, the top court was forced to issue a bailable warrant
served on him by the Kolkata Police Commissioner.Justice Karnan had last year stayed his transfer from the Madras High Court to Kolkata but later apologised, saying he had issued an erroneous order
due to his "mental frustration resulting in the loss of his mental balance."