HC judge sets fresh deadline for CJI and other SC judges

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, April 28

Justice CS Karnan of the Calcutta High Court on Friday “reposted” to May 1 the matter regarding appearance before him by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and other Supreme Court judges.

Karnan had on April 13 issued a suo motu judicial order against Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and six other Supreme Court judges (Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur, Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Kurian Joseph) and asked them to appear before him by 11.30 am on April 28 for “violation of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act” by them.

As expected, none of the SC judges showed up before Karnan on Friday, prompting Karnan to issue a fresh order. The order said, “Today, the above mentioned accused 1 to 8 are called absent, hence this matter is reposted to May 1 to enable their reappearance.”

From the seven accused mentioned in the April 13 order, the number of accused on Friday rose to eight after Karnan added the name of Justice R Banumathy of the Supreme Court to the list.

“The first (CJI Khehar) and the eighth accused have passed an identical order on February 15, 2016, without procedure according to law and restrained my judicial and administrative assignments at the Madras High Court. Therefore, the 8th accused impleaded as a necessary party/accused in the common judicial order. The advance notice already sent to the 8th accused namely, Justice R Banumathy,” the order issued by Karnan from his Kolkata residence said.

The common suo motu judicial order passed by Karnan on Friday, “in the interest of the nation to protect the general public from corruption and unrest”, directed the Air Control Authority, New Delhi to prevent the “accused 1 to 8 from going abroad”.

If the accused were allowed to travel abroad, they might spread the “virus of caste discrimination”, Karnan said.

The Supreme Court had earlier initiated contempt-of-court proceedings against Karnan after he wrote to the Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Union Law Ministry and others, levelling corruption charges against the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.

The apex court, in an unprecedented move, had also issued a bailable warrant against the sitting Calcutta High Court judge in March to ensure his presence before the court after his repeated non-appearance.

On March 31, Karnan finally appeared before the Supreme Court which then gave him four weeks’ time to tender an unconditional apology or give in writing his stance on the matter.

Friday is the last day of the four-week deadline set by the Supreme Court. Karnan had earlier made it clear that he would not appear in the SC for the purpose.