On a day when Calcutta High Court judge Justice CS Karnan failed to appear before the Supreme Court in response to a contempt notice, there was more trouble in store for him. A Madras HC judge’s wife on Monday accused him of spreading rumours of rape against her husband and harassing her family by using obscene language on the phone.
The complaint filed by Beula Rajakumari, wife of sitting HC judge Justice S Manikumar, was taken up by a Bench of Justices Arun Misra and Amitava Roy, while dealing with a pending case filed by the Madras HC against Justice Karnan’s orders where he complained of “caste bias” against HC Chief Justice in denying him a post in the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy.
The SC hearing took place shortly after a seven-judge Bench earlier in the day decided to give another opportunity to Justice Karnan to respond to the contempt notice issued to him on February 8.
In her complaint, Rajakumari prayed to restrain Justice Karnan from issuing any letter or communication containing allegations of rape against her husband. Justice Karnan had circulated posts on the social media accusing Justice Manikumar of allegedly raping a law intern. He further alleged that Manikumar’s wife had beaten the judge at his official residence following the incident.
Since the allegations were attributed directly to the judge’s wife, she stated in her application to the apex court that all this was a “figment of Justice Karnan’s imagination”. She further stated that Justice Karnan used “sexually obscene” language while talking to her and her 20-year-old daughter on phone.
The two-judge Bench decided to refer the complaint by the Madras HC judge’s wife to the seven-judge Bench considering the fact that it squarely concerned Justice Karnan. The seven-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar, Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B lokur, PC Ghose and Kurian Joseph asked Justice Karnan to appear before them on March 10, considering it reasonable to afford him sufficient time to prepare his response.
The court also took on record a communication issued by Justice Karnan on February 10 where he played the Dalit card to state that the SC ought not to hear the matter as it should be left to Parliament to decide.
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi submitted that the contents of Justice Karnan’s letter were scurrilous and “aggravate” the situation. He sought formal charges to be framed against the judge, but the Bench relented, waiting for the judge to first respond to the show cause notice issued to him. The court also threatened action against any advocate or lawyer body that intervenes in the proceeding without due authorisation from Justice Karnan.