Supreme Court: Owing to the non-appearance of Justice C. S. Karnan before the Court in the contempt proceedings, the 7-judge bench of J.S. Khehar, CJ and Dipak Misra, J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur, P.C. Ghose and Kurian Joseph, JJ issued a bailable warrant of Rs.10,000, in the nature of a personal bond, to ensure the presence of Justice Karnan on 31.03.2017.
On 08.02.2017, the Court had restrained Justice Karnan from handling any judicial or administrative work, as may have been assigned to him, in furtherance of the office held by him and had asked him to appear before the Court on 13.02.2017. Upon non-appearance of Justice Karnan on the said date, the Court listed the matter on 10.03.2017, however, on the next date as well he neither entered appearance in person, nor through counsel
The Court noticed that on 08.03.2017, the Registry had received a fax message from Justice Karnan seeking a meeting with the Chief Justice and the Judges of this Court, so as to discuss certain administrative issues expressed therein, which primarily seem to reflect the allegations levelled by him against certain named Judges. It was however said that the abovementioned fax message cannot be considered as a response of Shri Justice C.S.Karnan, either to the contempt petition, or to the notice served upon him.
The suo motu contempt proceedings were initiated against Justice Karnan after he had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to take actions against the corrupt sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court and Madras High Court when he was a Judge of the Madras High Court and had passed an injunction against his own transfer orders. [n Re: Justice C.S. Karnan, 2017 SCC OnLine SC 238, order dated 10.03.2017]
