Former Judge of Calcutta High Court, Justice (retd) CS Karnan who was given jail sentence by the Supreme Court for contempt of court was on Wednesday released from the Presidency Jail. Soon after the release, the seemingly unperturbed Judge was seen clicking photographs and interacting with the media with a smiling face. He refrained from making “sensational” statements even as the jail staff bid him goodbye and wished him good health.
Though Justice Karnan who was the first of his class (a High Court Judge) to serve jail term desisted from allowing speculations for a future career in politics sources close to him said he would continue to fight for the rights of the Dalits and the downtrodden.
A close associate said “there is widespread prejudice against Dalits” and he would continue to fight for their cause in the judiciary. Both people known to him and the jail staff said all through the six months of his term in prison, “he was in good spirits and used his time productively. He was never angry about the time he spent in jail,” where he offered legal aid to his fellow inmates.
He would stay in Kolkata for some time to sort out his pension matters, sources said.
The former Judge who spent his last stint in Calcutta High Court before getting arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after the Apex Court sentenced him to six months’ in jail on charges of contempt of his own fraternity. Even as he went missing from his Kolkata bungalow Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice SK Kaul turned down a petition to suspend his jail term on the grounds that the imprisonment was awarded by a seven-Judge Bench and was binding on all.
Justice Karnan who had himself handed out vainly though a sentence on his superior Judges subsequently had appealed the Apex Court for a recall of its order of imprisonment. The plea was however rejected. The Supreme Court had earlier taken suo motu cognizance of a set of letters shot off by the erring Judge against fellow Judges of Madras High Court as also some superior Judges of Supreme Court.