It was a black day in judicial history after a judge of the Madras High Court did the unthinkable by staying the order of Chief Justice of India (CJI), who had transferred the former to Calcutta High Court.
The embarrassment did not end there as the judge in question, Justice CS Karnan, even issued notice to CJI TS Thakur asking the top judge to file a written statement in support of the decision to transfer him and not to “interfere” into his jurisdiction.
The “suo moto judicial order” written on the official letterhead of Justice Karnan was addressed to the CJI, with a copy marked to the President of India, the Prime Minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BSP chief Mayawati, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, the Union law Minister, and the Chairman of National SC/ST Commission.
Stunned by the unprecedented development, the Registrar General of Madras High Court rushed with the order to the Supreme Court. A SC Bench headed by Justice JS Khehar put the order on hold and asked Chief Justice of Madras HC not to assign any judicial or administrative work to the judge following his transfer order issued on February 12.
The sequence of events started close to 1 pm when the Registrar General of Madras HC informed the Bench of Justices Khehar and R Banumathi about Justice Karnan’s anticipated move to stay his transfer order.
Karnan’s transfer was a long thought-out decision by the Supreme Court Collegium after a series of complaints were lodged against him by successive Chief Justices of Madras HC. lately, Justice Karnan had accused Chief Justice of Madras HC of acting with bias towards him by allegedly removing him from the Board of Governors of the TN State Judicial Academy. He further claimed that at the Academy’s function, he was not invited to speak as he belonged to the backward community. He even threatened to launch prosecution against the HC Chief Justice under various provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocity) Act.
It was against this backdrop the case was listed in the apex court on Monday. Close to 1 pm, when senior advocate KK Venugopal, representing the HC, hinted to the Bench that the transfer order is likely to get stayed, the apex court gave permission to Madras HC Chief Justice “not to assign any further administrative/judicial work to him (Justice Karnan)”.
When Justice Khehar reassembled at 2 pm to hear another matter, seeing Venugopal in Court, the judge queried, “I hope nothing more has happened.” To his surprise, Venugopal informed that close to 1.30 pm, they received an order passed by Justice Karnan staying his own transfer order and posting the matter on April 29 to seek CJI’s response.
The Bench altered its earlier order and included a paragraph that read, “The operation of all or any administrative/judicial orders passed by Justice Karnan after the issuance of the proposal of his transfer from Madras HC dated February 12, 2016
(unless specifically assigned to him by Chief Justice of HC) shall remain stayed till further orders.” The said judge was even restrained from passing any orders, suo moto or otherwise, unless in a matter specifically assigned to him by the CJ.
Expecting that with its order, the judge will fall in line, the apex court left it to Justice Karnan to enter appearance before it, advising at the same time, that if the judge chose to do so, it will be at his own cost.