Madras HC judge takes fight with CJ to Prez, dalit leaders
Dhananjay Mahapatra
New Delhi:
Exposing the Supreme Court's limitations in restraining a high court judge, Justice C S Karnan of the Madras high court has sharpened his tirade against HC Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and is trying to involve dalit political leaders Mayawati and Ramvilas Paswan in an internal issue of the HC.
The SC had on May 11 restrained Justice Karnan from initiating suo motu contempt proceedings against the chief justice and others on the issue of selection of judicial officers. Justice Karnan had alleged irregular, unfair and biased constitution of the selection committee by the chief justice. The SC had restrained him from any interference in the selection process.Barely had the restraint order sunk in when Justice Karnan wrote two letters, one on August 19 and the other on August 21, reiterating the same grievance: that the chief justice was inimical towards him and was neither assigning him appropriate category of cases for adjudication nor including him as a member in any important judges' committee in the HC.
The August 21 letter was unprecedented since Justice Karnan appeared to have breached the wall of judicial independence by invit ing attention of politic ians to his perceived problems at the hands of the HC chief justice.
The concluding par agraph of the letter con tained both a threat as well as an offer to settle. “It is my conviction that your lordship (Justice Kaul) has committed an atrocity as per Section 3(1)(vii) and (ix) and Section 3(2) (vi) and (vii) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, as an offender, as mentioned above. As such, I once again request your lordship to consciously reflect on this letter, allow a fair judgment to prevail and settle this burning episode once and for all,“ Justice Karnan said.
He addressed this letter to the President, Prime Minister, Union law minister, consumer affairs minister Ramvilas Paswan, former UP chief minister Mayawati, Tamil Nadu governor, TN chief minister and chairpersons of the national commissions for SCs and STs.
When this was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court bench headed by CJI H L Dattu, there was little it could do, especially when it came to teaching judicial discipline and restraint to HC judges.The CJI decided to wait and watch and told the HC that he was in touch with Justice Kaul on the matter. When the Madras HC had decided to move the SC against Justice Karnan's suo motu contempt orders, the judge concerned had sought financial assistance of `5 lakh from the HC to engage a lawyer in the apex court to present his side of the story .
The HC is yet to accede to his request. Justice Karnan said, “I am all out to clarify and settle this most atrocious case for which I sought financial assistance to proceed accordingly, but it appears you (the chief justice) have even denied me this. This behaviour and attitude towards me is most insulting to say the least.“
