Madras High Court Dismisses 2011 Plea To Restrain Retd Justice CS Karnan From Commenting On Judiciary In Media

A division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice AD Maria Clete observed that the prayer in the plea south to restrain a sitting Judge of the High Court was impermissible in law.

Noting that the plea had been listed with regard to its maintainability the court said that under Section 3 of the Judges (Protection) Act, 1985, no court shall entertain any proceeding against a Judge for any act thing or word committed, done or spoken by him when, or in the course of, acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official or judicial function. 

“Since the petitioner in this Writ Petition seeks for a Mandamus to restrain a named sitting Judge of the Madras High Court [now retired], which is impermissible in law, this Writ Petition is not maintainable and the objections made by the Registry in this regard is sustainable. Resultantly, the Registry is directed to return the case papers to the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, after obtaining his acknowledgment. Accordingly, this Writ Petition at S.R., stage is rejected. There shall be no order as to costs. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petitions also stand rejected,” the court said.

The writ petitioner also sought to restrict Justice Karnan from indulging in any castigating act of defamatory, scurrilous, derogatory, libelous, scandalous, and ruthless outcries and to give due respect to his oath of office.

It may be noted that Justice (Retd) Karnan was the first serving judge to be jailed. A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and observed that Justice Karnan had committed contempt of court, judiciary and judicial process and sentenced him to 6 months imprisonment. Though the SC had ordered him to be arrested forthwith, Justice Karnan had evaded the arrest for more than a month after which he was arrested. During this time, Justice Karnan retired from the judicial service.

The Contempt Proceedings were initiated against Justice Karnan after he passed an unusual order convicting the Chief Justice of India and six other Supreme Court Judges for offences under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and sentenced them to 5 years imprisonment. Justice Karnan had also made allegations against the Chief Justice of Madras High Court and other judges of the High Court.

Another case was also registered against Justice Karnan in 2020, after videos of him threatening the judges of the higher judiciary surfaced online. In the video, Karnan was seen uttering abuses and obscenities against the judges and their family members and even threatening the women relatives of the judges with sexual violence. The Madras High Court had later granted bail to Karnan considering his unconditional apology and his medical condition.

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.K.Neelamegam

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Mad) 484

Case Title: B Stalin v The Registrar Genera, Madras HC and Others

Case No: W.P.(MD)SR.No.53343 of 2011