At a time when the police forces of three States are on the lookout to arrest Justice CS Karnan, the judge’s lawyer approached the Supreme Court on Thursday to seek a recall of the order sentencing the sitting judge to jail.
A Calcutta High Court judge, Justice Karnan is facing a six-month sentence from the SC for contempt of court.
A Mumbai-based advocate Mathews J Nedumpara mentioned Justice Karnan’s application before the Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and said he had to directly mention it since no Advocate on Record (AoR) was willing to file the application for the contemnor judge. Any petition or application in the apex court has to be filed through an AoR.
“None of the AoRs are willing to appear as they are scared of this court,” said Nedumpara.
The CJI wondered how Nedumpara could file the application on behalf of Justice Karnan who was traceless. “He is not available. How can he sign the applicationIJ Do you have authority to file on his behalfIJ” asked the CJI.
Nedumpara handed over the application with the signature of Justice Karnan appointing him as his counsel to argue the application. The CJI looked at the application and said, “We will consider it.”
Nedumpara said he had visited Justice Karnan in Chennai on Wednesday to get his signature.
Karnan in his application said that the May 9 order of the SC sentencing him under criminal contempt was without jurisdiction. He claimed none of his statement was aimed to scandalize or lower the image of the Court and he had only raised fingers at individual judges and questioned their probity. If the charges were false, he said there is a remedy under law to file a suit for defamation.
Claiming that a HC is not subordinate to the SC, he said the apex court cannot initiate contempt proceedings against a HC judge under the Constitutional scheme. Otherwise, even a HC judge should be free to proceed contempt action against a SC judge.
He then went on to state that the notice of contempt issued to him on February 8, 2017 did not contain the charges for which he is to be punished. Moreover, the punishment against him was passed without hearing him, amounting to violation of principles of natural justice.
Meanwhile, reports from Chennai said the “fugitive” judge remained untraceable till late on Thursday evening. A team consisting of senior police officers from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have launched a manhunt for Karnan.
Karnan reached Chennai late on Tuesday evening, addressed a group of reporters who followed him from Chennai Airport to the State Guest House at Chepauk and vanished early on Wednesday morning.
On Thursday morning the police rushed to the residence of Karnan in a Chennai suburb where his wife told the search party that she did not know anything about Karnan’s whereabouts. A large number of people had gathered outside the residence of Karnan to watch the search operation.