The Supreme Court issued a warrant against Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan on Friday after he failed to appear for contempt proceedings, despite an apex court notice. The bench told the Deputy Commissioner of the West Bengal Police to execute the order personally and produce him in court before March 31, reported PTI. The court has set his bail bond at Rs 10,000.
Karnan had earlier accused the Supreme Court of being “anti-Dalit” for issuing the contempt notice against him. He had also claimed that the court’s order was “unethical” and a violation of the SC and ST (Prevention of) Atrocities Act.
On February 8, the apex court had issued a contempt notice against him for accusing several Supreme Court and high court judges of corruption. The bench had asked him to appear before it on February 13.
The notice against Justice Karnan came only days after he wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to do something about the “high corruption at the judiciary”. On January 23, he had released the letter containing “an initial list of corrupt judges”. The list had 20 names on it, including sitting judges at the Supreme Court and various high courts.
Chief Justice of India JS Khehar was part of the seven-judge bench that issued the notice to Karnan. The top court had taken suo motu cognisance of the matter.
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