SC to take up contempt issue against Justice Karnan tomorrow

In an unprecedented move, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court will tomorrow take up the issue of suo motu cognisance of alleged contemptuous letters written by sitting Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan against the Madras High Court Chief Justice addressed to various authorities.
The apex court has turned the letters into contempt proceedings against Justice Karnan which were addressed to Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister and others.
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 was trasferred from the Madras High Court to the Calcutta High Court for his alleged contemptuous conduct.
He has also been allowed to argue in person his case relating to his own transfer later this month before another bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy which last month had 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 it 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.