Unprecedented decision, the Supreme Court on 9th May 2017 sentenced a sitting judge to jail after it held Justice CS Karnan guilty of contempt of court. After convicting Justice Karnan to six-month imprisonment, the court states: ‘Since the incident of contempt includes public statements and publication of order made by the contemnor, which was published by the electronic and print media, and no further statements made by him should be published hereafter. Ordered accordingly.’ The apex court has ordered the Director General of west Bengal Police to set up a team to implement its arrest order “forthwith”.
A high-level team of Mr. Surajit Purkayastha under West Bengal Director General of Police (WBDGP) met Chennai Police Commissioner Mr. Karan Singha and formed a joint team to arrest justice Karnan. On the same day, he was in a govt. guest house in Chennai after leaving his home in Kolkata. However, he checked out the guest house on next day morning allegedly without paying his bill. Meanwhile, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh police have launched a manhunt to trace justice Karnan to enforce the Supreme Court order.
When the news spread that the controversial Calcutta court judge C S Karnan has seemingly gone missing, his close aide and his legal advisor Peter Ramesh Kumar claimed that he is escaping arrest and may have left the country. They are preparing for the next level of legal battle and that’s why he needs to in hiding until that time.
After all this drama Karnan has on Thursday sought the apex court’s relief in the contempt of court matter for which he was sentenced to six months in jail. Chief Justice of India J S Khehar said the Supreme Court bench will consider his plea since it mentioned. His lawyer Mathews J. Nedumpara shows some authorized paper to represent the judge and filing the plea on behalf of the judge to the bench. Nedumpara also said that twelve advocates on record had refused to represent the controversial judge and told the bench that justice Karnan was very much in Chennai.
The plea on the behalf of Karnan was mentioned before the bench which had just concluded the day’s hearing on the issue of triple talaq. However, the police are yet to arrest the judge to execute the Supreme Court order. This is the situation in India. And obviously, the case is for a Justice not a common people.
