CJI Refuses To Entertain Justice Karnan's Plea To Recall Contempt Order

“In any part of the world can a judgment be overturned on the basis of oral submissions or request? We will not admit your plea”, CJI Khehar told his lawyer Mathew Nedumpara adding we also feel that your aim and objective in making the request  has nothing to do with the case and it is something else.

Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan, sentenced to six months imprisonment after found guilty of contempt, today once again approached the Supreme Court seeking to recall the order

But  a bench of chief justice J S Khehar and D Y Chandrachud refused to entertain the plea after making strong observation when Karnan’s lawyer Mathew Nedumpara made the submission.

“In any part of the world can a judgment be overturned on the basis of oral submissions or request? We will not admit your plea”, CJI Khehar told Nedumpara adding we also feel that your aim and objective in making the request  has nothing to do with the case and it is something else.

On June 21 a vacation Bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul refused to entertain Karnan’s plea seeking interim bail and suspension of the six-month sentence awarded to him for contempt of court. They said the court was bound by the order of the seven-judge Bench on the case and suggested that he mention the matter before a Bench of the Chief Justice. “Only the special bench concerned” could hear the plea, the judges said.

Karnan, who was evading arrest for more than a month after the court sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment for contempt of court, was arrested in Coimbatore after being on the run for 43 days. The arrest was made eight days after his tenure as a high court judge came to an end.

On 9 May, Karnan was sentenced to six months of imprisonment, after he was held guilty of contempt of court. He is the first serving high court judge to be sent to prison for contempt.

The court directed the arrest to be “forthwith” for declining to undergo medical tests to determine the state of his mental health.

The court had taken suo motu (on its own motion) cognizance of Karnan’s misconduct in accusing members of the judiciary of nepotism, casteism and corruption when he served as a judge in the Madras high court. He was subsequently transferred to the Calcutta high court.

On 1 March, the apex court had directed Karnan to undergo a mental health checkup, observing that he may not be fit to defend himself.