Justice Karnan seeks 12 weeks time to file reply to petition

Justice C S Karnan of the Madras High Court today wrote to the Registrar General of the Supreme Court seeking 12 weeks time to reply to a petition by the High Court to the apex court against him for making "intemperate observations" regarding the role and functioning of its Chief Justice S K Kaul.
In his letter, Justice Karnan, while mentioning that he sought funds to contest the case from the High Court, said "I sought funds from the Madras High Court and the same is under process on the file of Administrative Committee now pending three months."
The High Court's petition had said that on April 16 Justice Karnan suo motu passed an order questioning the nomination of one of the Madras High Court judges, Justice V Dhanapalan, to the selection committee for recruitment of 162 Civil Judges the process of which had been started by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission on August 26, 2014.

In the petition filed against the April 30 interim order of Justice Karnan staying appointments to the lower judiciary, the Registry had said that he did so despite a division bench of the high court having stayed the proceedings by an order on April 17.
The petition, filed in May, had said the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court had, by an administrative order, directed that the matter be not listed before any single judge.
Justice Karnan submitted that the Registrar General of the Madras High Court is not a party in the case but he had filed a petition before the Supreme Court and obtained an interim stay in favour of Justice V Dhanapalan.

He submitted that his contention in that order passed by him suo motu was that Justice V Dhanapalan produced "bogus educational certificates and on the basis of his clandestine behaviour attained the post of High Court Judge at Madras High Court".
Stating that the order obtained by the Registrar General the Madras of High Court is "poignantly unusual", the Judge sought to adjourn the case for 12 weeks.