SC registry refuses to accept Justice Karnan's plea
NEW DELHI: Giving Calcutta High Court judge Justice C S Karnan no respite, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to list and hear his plea, seeking recall of its order on contempt of court for which he was awarded six months imprisonment. Justice Karnan has been evading arrest since May 9.
The petition was held as not maintainable by the apex court registry.
“It is thus clear from the averments made in the petition that the petitioner intends to impugn and challenge the judicial order passed by this court on May 9, 2017, in the suo motu petition. The proceedings therein were decided on merits and after due consideration, it was held that Justice C S Karnan had committed contempt of the gravest nature resulting in finding of guilt. The petitioner also stands convicted and sentenced to an imprisonment of six months.
The said findings have since attained finality,” an apex court registrar, who deals with listing of fresh writ petitions, said in his order. “I am constrained but to hold that the present writ petition is not maintainable. The relief, if any, lies somewhere else. I thus see no reasonable cause to receive the present writ petition for registration under the provisions of Supreme Court rules, 2013,” the registrar said in three-page order passed on May 12.
The judge, through his lawyers, had moved the apex court seeking recall of the May 9 order of the seven-judge Bench which had held him guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to six months imprisonment by ordering the West Bengal police to take him into custody forthwith.
In his plea, Justice Karnan said, “Under our constitutional scheme, high courts are not subordinate to the Supreme Court. High courts are as much independent as the Supreme Court is, though their orders could be judicially challenged in the Supreme Court, the latter being a Court of Appeal.”
Justice Karnan said the Contempt of Courts Act was a “cathartic jurisprudence which belonged to the Dark Ages, the era of inquisition and torture, distinct from the classical Roman Law which constitutes the foundation of modern jurisprudence.”
He has said the showcause notice issued by a seven judge bench to him on February 8 be declared “unconstitutional” as it was against “the principles of natural justice”.