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  India   CJI: Decision taken on Justice CS Karnan

CJI: Decision taken on Justice CS Karnan

Published : Feb 13, 2016, 12:12 am IST
Updated : Feb 13, 2016, 12:12 am IST

A decision on Justice C.S. Karnan has been taken by the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur on Thursday. CJI Thakur disclosed this on Friday when senior counsel K.K.

Jerome Valcke
 Jerome Valcke

A decision on Justice C.S. Karnan has been taken by the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur on Thursday. CJI Thakur disclosed this on Friday when senior counsel K.K. Venugopal was appearing for the registrar-general of the Madras high court pleading for early listing of a fresh appeal challenging an order passed by Justice Karnan. The Chief Justice of India, without elaborating as to what decision has been taken, told the counsel: “We have taken a decision at our meeting yesterday. We will list this petition on Monday.”

Former chief justices of the Madras high court have pleaded for the transfer of Justice Karnan to some other high court. It is not clear whether he has been transferred.

The Supreme Court had passed a restraint order in May last on a special leave petition filed by the registrar-general of the high court challenging Justice Karnan’s suo motu order relating to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and directing initiation of contempt proceedings against Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul for not implementing his order through his administrative directions.

In the fresh petition, the RG referred to three letters written by Justice Karnan, one to Justice Kaul, one to Justice V. Ramasubramanian and the third to the state home secretary. Justice Karnan, in his letter to Justice Kaul, took exception that he was not being made a member of the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy as he was a Scheduled Caste.

He referred to a function for the inauguration of the regional centres of the Academy at Coimbatore and Madurai and said all the participants are upper caste judges with no representative from SC or ST and that his name has been removed. and replaced with a junior judge, who belonged to upper caste.

Justice Karnan said that the SCs represent a sizeable chunk in the field of eligibles in all spheres and have attracted the recognition of most eminent persons of India. He said “on August 21, 2015 I have declared that you are an offender under SC/ST Atrocity Act with the support of substantial documentary proof which is existing and still prevailing. Now I am openly declaring that you have a possessive mind of caste feeling, a judicial observation that is certainly not conducive for the high ideals of our august court and the theme of this invitation “The March of Law-the Way Forward’. He wanted the CJ to take a more liberal outlook.

In his letter to justice Ramasubramanian, he asked him to proceed on leave as he is facing certain allegations. In his letter to Home Secretary to grant police protection to a Madurai based advocate Peter Ramesh Kumar, as he was facing threat to his life, treating it as a judicial order. The RG questioned these three letters.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi