Justice Karnan to argue his case tomorrow before SC bench

In an unprecedented move, sitting Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan is all set to argue in person tomorrow before a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court in a case relating to his own transfer from the Madras High Court.
A seven-judge bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur, P C Ghose and Kurian Joseph will hear the matter at 10.30 AM. Justice Karnan is perhaps the first serving high court judge to do so.
This bench was especially constituted after a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy last month allowed Justice Karnan's plea to argue his case in person by accepting his request to discharge his advocate S Gowthaman.

Justice Karnan had written a letter dated December 21, 2016 to the Supreme Court Registry seeking permission for the same.
Earlier, the Registrar General of the Madras High Court had stated that 12 files of the high court were still with Justice Karnan and these were required to be returned.
It was also submitted that the government accommodation which had been allotted to Justice Karnan at Chennai, had not been vacated, adding that the government accommodation was needed as 14 new judges have been appointed and a judge cannot keep it for more than a month after he ceases to be a judge of the High Court of Tamil Nadu.

Justice Karnan had on February 15, 2016 stayed his transfer order after the apex court asked the chief justice of Madras High Court not to assign any judicial work to him.

The same day the apex court had suspended Justice Karnan's order and made it clear that all administrative and judicial orders passed by him after the issuance of the proposal of his transfer from the Madras High Court to the Calcutta High Court shall remain stayed till further orders.
However, a week later, the judge had admitted that he had issued an "erroneous" order due to his "mental frustration resulting in the loss of his mental balance".

The apex court had passed the directions on an application moved by the Registrar of the Madras High Court, seeking an order to restrain Justice Karnan from doing any judicial work.