Restore my work, or else I won't appear before you. You may put me in jail, Justice Karnan tells SC

Highlights

• 1

  CJI Khehar asked Karnan if he wanted to offer an unconditional apology.

• 2

  Karnan said his work should be restored.

• 3

  When his request wasn't accepted, he said he wouldn't appear before the bench next time.

The Supreme Court today declined to restore administrative and judicial work to Calcutta High Court Judge CS Karnan, against whom the top court issued a bailable warrant in a contempt case earlier this month.

A seven-judge-bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Jagdish Singh Khehar gave him four weeks to respond to its contempt notice.

After his requests to have his work restored weren't accepted, Karnan said he wouldn't appear before the bench next time, and that he could be imprisoned.

Justice Karnan is accused of writing disparaging letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and the Supreme Court Registrar about sitting and retired judges of the Supreme and High Courts. In some cases, he even levelled allegations of corruption and caste discrimination. He had also stayed the top court collegium's decision transferring him from the Madras High Court to the Calcutta High Court.

'WE WILL GIVE YOU THE TIME'

At the start of today's hearing, CJI Khehar asked Karnan if he wanted to reiterate the allegations he had made against 20 judges, or think about it or offer an unconditional apology.

"We are asking you again and again. Do you say that you stand by whatever you have written or want to think about it, we will give you the time," the bench told Karnan as he appeared before the court, after non-bailable warrants were issued against him in the last hearing.

As the court asked Karnan to respond in the four weeks time, he said that his judicial and administrative work should be restored, and that only then he would be in a position to respond to the contempt notice.

As the bench refused to accede to his plea for the restoration, Karnan said the court could record his statement that he would not appear for the next hearing, and that he could be punished right away and sent to jail.

When Karnan said he wasn't in a state of mind to respond to the contempt notice, the bench said: "If you feel that you are not in a mental state to respond, you give a medical certificate."

At one point during the hearing, when the bench observed that Karnan wasn't clear and wasnot able to comprehend what he was doing, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that there was no question of non-comprehension.

Rohatgi said: "I don't think this is a case of un-intention. It is a case of re-affirmation (of the allegations). You go on naming the judges, asking for inquiry. He is damning the judges. Has damned the judiciary."

(With inputs from IANS)

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