India’s Dalit judge defies SC, cries victimisation

NEW DELHI: Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan, who is giving a migraine to the top judicial brains, was appointed judge of the Madras high court in March 2009, reports the foreign media.

On February 8, the SC had stripped Karnan of all judicial and administrative work and asked him to personally appear in court on February 13 to explain why contempt action should not be initiated against him for improper conduct and intemperate remarks.

A defiant Karnan also issued an “order” directing the CBI to register and probe cases under Article 226 and CrPc Section 482 against a host of judges from different courts for corruption, rape and embezzlement.

“I had written to the PM to initiate investigations against at least 22 corrupt judges. That was on January 23 this year. Most of them are from upper castes and that is why no investigation has started. It is because I was bold to bring charges against them that I am being cornered now. I am a Dalit and that is why I am being targeted,” he said. He also appealed to the President to revoke the warrant against him. “Only the President can restore my prestige now and I appeal to his good offices,” Karnan said.

Karnan observed that no contempt action, either civil or criminal, can be initiated against a sitting HC judge under Sections 2(c), 12 and 14 of the Contempt of Courts Act or under Article 20 of the Constitution. “Only a motion of impeachment can be initiated against a sitting judge of the higher judiciary before the Parliament after due enquiry under the Judges’ Enquiry Act”. He added, “The SC shares equal power and rights with all the HCs of the country . It is not my master and I am not its servant. I will not appear before the SC.”

None of a host of former judges who were members of the SC collegium, headed by the then CJI KG Balakrishnan, at the time, had any recollection of Karnan’s traits. “It was eight long years ago. As collegium members, we must have selected over 100 people for appointment as judges,” said one of the judges.”We mostly go by the recommendations of the HC collegium comprising the chief justice and the two most senior judges. Before approving the recommendation, we do take the opinion of SC judges who were associated with the HC to which the appointment is recommended,” the judge added, an opinion echoed by others.

Two former SC judges who were associated in the past with the Madras HC, and whose opinion was sought by the SC collegiums, said memory failed them on Karnan. But the then members of the SC collegium recalled that the Madras HC collegium -which at the time comprised the then chief justice AK Ganguly and Justice PK Misra and Justice Mukhopadhaya - had sent the proposal for Karnan’s appointment as a judge.

However, the selection of Karnan, who now throws up his Dalit background to attack the judges by accusing them of victimising him, by the HC collegium came as no surprise for many who started their career from the Madras HC and ended up as CJIs or SC judges. “There is an unwritten convention in the Madras HC collegium to give opportunities to advocates from the Dalit category to become judges despite the fact that there is no reservation in such appointments,” said a judge. The SC judges and CJIs, who were made aware of Justice Karnan’s activities and mindset after he started throwing tantrums every now and then, it was said that he suffered from a persecution complex. “He always felt that he was being targeted because of his Dalit background and attacked his colleague judges for this. At the same time, he did not spare other judges who belonged to the Dalit community,” said another judge.

Justice Karnan was described as a loner who didn’t interact much with his colleagues. The judges the foreign media spoke to were unanimous that it is very difficult to rein in an HC judge who decides to go the way Justice Karnan has. Karnan’s repeated allegations and threats against colleague judges and the chief justices of Madras HC had led to his transfer to the Calcutta HC. But the transfer appears to have had the opposite impact, with his allegations growing more sulphuric. Justice Karnan is due to retire in less than three months on June 11.

Despite being divested of judicial and administrative powers by a CJI-headed seven judge bench that has issued bailable arrest warrants against him for defying summons in the contempt of court proceedings drawn against him, Karnan has passed an order against the judges for ruining his reputation, seeking Rs 140 million as damages.