SC to hear plea filed by sitting Calcutta HC judge to argue his case

The Supreme Court will today hear the plea filed by the sitting Calcutta High Court judge Justice C.S. Karnan to argue his case.

In a first, a seven-judge bench of the Apex Court, comprising Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices Dipak Misra, J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M.B. Lokur, P.C. Ghose and Kurian Joseph, will take up the issue of 'suo motu cognisance' of alleged contemptuous letters written by Karnan against the Madras High Court Chief Justice addressed to various authorities.

Justice Karnan was transferred from the Madras High Court to the Calcutta High Court for his offensive conduct.

Karnan has also been allowed to argue in person his case relating to his own transfer later this month before another bench, comprising of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy.

Earlier, Madras High Court's Registrar General had stated that 12 files of the high court were still with Justice Karnan and the government accommodation which had been allotted to him at Chennai had not been vacated.

On February 15, 2016, Justice Karnan had stayed his transfer order after the Apex Court asked the Chief Justice of Madras High Court not to assign any judicial work to him.