Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan on Saturday called the Supreme Court’s suo motu contempt of court notice against him an “error” and said that it should not be executed. Speaking to reporters, Karnan called for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe against seven apex court judges including Chief Justice JS Khehar. His statements follow the apex court’s warrant against him for failing to appear for contempt proceedings despite its notice. He was accused of degrading the judiciary.
Karnan, however, said the warrant against him had not been served yet, NDTV reported.
Karnan also said the public need not cooperate with a “wrong order”. “If any judge passes wrong orders, the public need not cooperate with wrong order that is not suitable for execution,” he said. Karnan claimed that many “honourable judges” commit errors while passing judgments owing to their poor knowledge of the field.
On Friday, the Supreme Court had directed the West Bengal Police deputy commissioner to execute the order personally and produce the high court judge in court before March 31, PTI had reported. 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”. In 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.
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