The Supreme Court on Monday came to the rescue of Madras High Court Chief Justice facing contempt proceedings from one of the sitting judges of the High Court.
The apex Bench headed by CJI Hl Dattu stayed the order of April 30 passed by Justice CS Karnan threatening Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul with contempt action and enquiry by the National SC/ST Commission being a Dalit judge. The apex court even restrained Justice Karnan or any judge of HC to interfere with the Committee’s work for selecting Junior Divisional Judicial Officers.
The dispute arose over selection of civil judges in the State for which a five-judge Committee was constituted by CJ Kaul to interview and select 162 candidates. Justice Karnan objected to the presence of three judges and stayed functioning of the committee on April 16. A two-judge Bench reversed the order but Justice Karnan proceeded suo motu.
Senior advocate KK Venugopal who appeared for HC Registrar General even sought withdrawal of judicial work as the institution faced disrepute. But CJI assured Venugopal that this aspect will be dealt on administrative side with Justice Kaul. The Court for now has issued notice only to TN Public Services Commission and not to Justice Karnan.