Controversial Calcutta high court judge CS Karnan who recently ended his tenure as a fugitive from law, was today arrested from Coimbatore by the West Bengal CID. 62-year-old Justice Karnan had been evading arrest since May 9 after being sentenced to six months imprisonment for contempt of court by the Supreme Court.
CS Karnan has the dubious distinction of being the first sitting high court judge to be awarded a jail term by the apex court. A customary farewell by the high court administration to the retiring judge could not be held as Justice Karnan was absconding at that time.
Earlier on May 21, a representation was made to the President on behalf of Justice Karnan seeking suspension of the Supreme Court order sentencing him to six-month imprisonment for contempt of court. Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara had said that he, along with other counsel representing the High Court judge and his son CS Sugan, met Ashok Mehta, the Secretary to the President, and handed over an application for suspension of the sentence under Article 72 of the Constitution.
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The lawyers had taken the ground in the application that Justice Karnan would be unable to exercise any remedy if he is arrested.
CS Karnan courted controversy in January 2017 after he named 20 sitting and retired Supreme Court and High Court judges of being corrupt. In May, a seven-judge bench sentenced the judge to six-months jail finding him guilty of contempt of court. The order came a day after Karnan had ordered the arrest of eight apex court judges.
Video Courtesy: YouTube
Justice Karnan, who enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. In March 2016, he was transferred to the Calcutta High Court. He was transferred from the Madras HC over his repeated allegations and run-ins with its then chief justice and fellow judges.
–With PTI inputs
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