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C. S. Karnan

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C. S. Karnan
Judge, Calcutta High Court
In office
11 March 2016 – 12 June 2017
Judge, Madras High Court
In office
30 March 2009 – 11 March 2016
Personal details
Born
Karunanithi Swaminathan

(1955-06-12) 12 June 1955 (age 69)
Karnatham, Vriddachalam,
Cuddalore, Madras, India
SpouseSaraswati
Children2

Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan (born 12 June 1955) is a retired Indian judge. In May 2017, he was sentenced to six months of imprisonment by the Supreme Court of India, holding him guilty of contempt of court. He was the first Indian High Court judge to be sent to prison for contempt while in office.[1][2]

Early life

Karnan was born on 12 June 1955 as Karunanithi Swaminathan in the village of Karnatham, in the Cuddalore district of erstwhile Madras (now Tamil Nadu), into a dalit family.[3] He was the second of eight children born to Chinnaswamy Swaminathan, a school teacher and headmaster, and a recipient of President's Best Teacher Award, and Kamalam, a homemaker. He completed schooling in Karnatham's Adi Dravidar school and a government school in Mangalampet, before completing his pre-university course from Government Arts College, Vridhachalam. Thereafter, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in botany from The New College, Chennai, and subsequently obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from Madras Law College in 1983.[4] He changed his first name from Karunanithi to Karnan in 1991, on the insistence of his wife Saraswati due to numerological reasons.[3]

Career

Upon graduating with a law degree in 1983, Karnan enrolled as advocate before the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and began to practice civil law. During the time, he was selected as legal adviser to the Chennai MetroWater Supply and Sewage Board, the government advocate in civil suits and also as a standing counsel for the union government.[5]

In 2009, Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly, then the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, recommended Karnan's name to the collegium for appointment as a judge. Despite his work not having known well to the collegium, his appointment was approved by the collegium headed by then Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan.[6] Speaking about it to The Hindu, Ganguly justified the appointment because "he [Karnan] represented a certain community that should be represented in the choice of judges",[7] but he, along with other members of the collegium, expressed regret over it later.[8]

Controversies

In November 2011, Karnan wrote to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) alleging caste-based harassment from other judges of the Madras High Court.[9] Addressing a press conference organized in his chamber, he said that he had faced such "humiliation and embarrassment since April 2009" and that it still continued.[10] He spoke of a specific incident when a judge "touched him with his foot".[11] This led to an agitation in the campus of the Court. The then NCSC Chairman, P. L. Punia, had forwarded Karnan's letter to the then Chief Justice of India, Justice S. H. Kapadia.[9]

In a controversial judgement in June 2013, he ruled that the promise of marriage for premarital sex would be considered as marriage.[6] He wrote, "If a bachelor aged 21 years or above and a spinster aged 18 years or above had pre-marital sex with intention to marry and subsequent to this the man deserts the woman the victim woman can approach a civil forum for remedy after producing necessary substantial evidence to grant her social status as wife. This remedy is not only for the purpose of giving relief to the victim woman but also to maintain the cultural integrity of India."[12] When met with criticism, he clarified that the "order does not in any way run against any religion and is not intended to wound any Indian. The order had not in any way degraded the system of marriage performed as per the various religious and customs and rites among the various communities".[13]

In another controversial incident, in January 2014, Karnan barged into a court room at the Madras High Court during a hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) before a Division bench of on a matter relating to the appointment of certain judges. He told the bench in open court that the selection was unfair and that he wanted to file an affidavit in his name. The behavior was condemned by the Supreme Court saying, "The sudden unfamiliar incident made us fume inwardly at this raw unconventional protest that was unexpected, uncharitable and ungenerous and, to say the least, indecorous." During the time, the then Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Rajesh Kumar Agrawal, wrote to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, P. Sathasivam, asking him to transfer Karnan to any other High Court.[3] However, Karnan wrote to Sathasivam and Agrawal, stating that he wished to stay on in the Madras High Court, in order to prove the allegations that he had raised against the Chief Justice and the other judges of the Court. Subsequently, Karnan wrote to the joint registrar of the Right to Information section, alleging irregularities in the appointment of district judges. He sought details of the selection process in order to file a complaint before the President of India. In the intervening period, 20 judges of the Madras High Court jointly wrote to the Chief Justice of India requesting Justice Karnan's transfer.[9]

In August 2014, when Justice Kaul was appointed as Madras HC chief justice, Justice Karnan launched into a one-man attack against many of the judges. He supposedly hurled accusations at the judges, who fell silent. It is believed that the issue was again based on discrimination. 20 judges sent a memorandum to the CJI asking that Justice Karnan be transferred since they found it difficult to work with him.

In 2015, Justice Karnan publicly alleged that another judge had sexually harassed an intern in his chamber — an allegation that he has since been unable to substantiate.

In late 2015, he wrote a letter to Justice Kaul saying he was going on a long leave because of the ‘dummy cases’ he was being allotted. In February 2016, the apex court transferred him to Calcutta HC.

On 23 January 2017, Justice Karnan had published an open letter to the prime minister naming "an initial list" of 20 sitting and retired Supreme Court and High Court judges, accusing them of corruption.[14]

On 8 May 2017, Karnan had sentenced Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar and seven other SC judges to five-year rigorous imprisonment after holding them guilty under the SC/ST Atrocities Act-1989 and amended Act of 2015.[15][16]

The Supreme Court on 9 May 2017 sentenced Calcutta High Court judge Justice C. S. Karnan to six months imprisonment for contempt of court.[17][18][19] To avoid the contempt proceeding, it was believed while he had fled to Nepal, he was very much present in Kolkata. He finally retired on 12 June and subsequently after a week of his retirement, finally arrested by the Kolkata Police on 21 June 2017 from Coimbatore.[20] He was eventually released from prison on 20 December 2017 after completing his six-month sentence.[21]

References

  1. ^ Mittal, Priyanka; Vishwanath, Apurva (10 May 2017). "Supreme Court sentences justice C.S. Karnan to 6 months imprisonment". Livemint. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  2. ^ Rajagopal, Krishnadas (9 May 2017). "SC sentences Justice Karnan to six months imprisonment". The Hindu. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Subramanian, Lakshmi. "Young justice". The Week. No. 21 May 2017. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  4. ^ Dominique, Bosco (10 May 2017). "Karnan was Karunanidhi". The Times of India. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  5. ^ "Who is Justice CS Karnan?". The Indian Express. 9 May 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  6. ^ a b Dutta, Prabhash K. (1 May 2017). "Curious case of Justice Karnan: A history of controversies and mystery". India Today. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  7. ^ "All You Need To Know About Justice C.S. Karnan, Who Now Faces Contempt Charge By Supreme Court". Outlook. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  8. ^ Edmond, Deepu Sebastian (29 February 2016). "Judge regrets recommending Karnan". The Hindu. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  9. ^ a b c Chakraburtty, Smita (6 May 2017). "The Curious Case of Justice Karnan". Economic and Political Weekly. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  10. ^ Subramani, A. (4 November 2011). "Judge rubbed his shoes against me, says Justice Karnan". The Times of India. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Justice Karnan may not appear for contempt of court proceedings in Supreme Court on March 31st". The Financial Express. 13 March 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  12. ^ "Statement of Judge Karnan". The Hindu. 19 June 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  13. ^ "Madras HC clarifies pre-marital sex verdict, objects to criticism". Hindustan Times. 19 June 2013. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  14. ^ Mittal, Priyanka (9 May 2017). "Supreme Court sentences justice Karnan to 6 months imprisonment". livemint.com/. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  15. ^ PTI (3 May 2017). "Justice Karnan issues non-bailable warrants against 7 Supreme Court judges". livemint.com/. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  16. ^ Rajagopal, Krishnadas. "SC sentences Justice Karnan to six months imprisonment". The Hindu. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  17. ^ "Supreme Court sentences Justice Karnan to 6 months in jail for contempt of court - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  18. ^ "A first: Calcutta HC judge CS Karnan sentenced to 6 months in jail by Supreme Court". The Economic Times. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  19. ^ "Justice Karnan row: SC sentences belligerent HC judge to 6 months in jail for contempt of court". Firstpost. 9 May 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  20. ^ "Evading former Justice CS Karnan arrested from Coimbatore". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  21. ^ "Justice Karnan released from Kolkata's Presidency jail". The Hindu. 20 December 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
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