Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan (born 12 June 1955) is a retired Indian judge. In May 2017, he was sentenced to six months of imprisonment by the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
, holding him guilty of
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
. He was the first Indian High Court judge to be sent to prison for contempt while in office.
Early life
Karnan was born on 12 June 1955 as Karunanithi Swaminathan in the village of Karnatham, in the
Cuddalore district
Cuddalore District is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.
History
Since ancient times, the old town has been a seaport. Through the centuries, Cuddalore has been subject to a number of foreign powers including the Net ...
of erstwhile
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
(now
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...
), into a
dalit
Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...
family. He was the second of eight children born to Chinnaswamy Swaminathan, a school teacher and
headmaster
A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...
, and a recipient of President's Best Teacher Award, and Kamalam, a homemaker. He completed schooling in Karnatham's Adi Dravidar school and a
government school
State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...
pre-university course
The Pre-University Course or Pre-Degree Course (PUC or PDC) is an 2-year Senior Secondary Course under the 10+2 education system after Class 10th (SSLC, SSC) and the PUC commonly refers to Class 11th and Class 12th and called as 1st PUC (1st Year ...
from Government Arts College, Vridhachalam. Thereafter, he graduated with a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
degree in
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, and subsequently obtained a
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
degree from
Madras Law College
Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, commonly known by its former name Madras Law College, is a law school, located in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is also referred to as Government Law College or GLC, Chennai. It was established in ...
in 1983. He changed his first name from Karunanithi to Karnan in 1991, on the insistence of his wife Saraswati due to
numerological
Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...
reasons.
Career
Upon graduating with a law degree in 1983, Karnan enrolled as advocate before the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and began to practice civil law. During the time, he was selected as legal adviser to the
Chennai MetroWater Supply and Sewage Board
Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, known shortly as CMWSSB, is a statutory board of Government of Tamil Nadu which provides water supply and sewage treatment to the city of Chennai and areas around it.
Chennai is one of the ...
, the government advocate in civil suits and also as a standing counsel for the union government.
In 2009, Justice
Asok Kumar Ganguly
Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly is an Indian jurist. He served as the Chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission and as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India who delivered judgements in some high-profile cases like the 2G spectrum case.
...
, then the Chief Justice of the
Madras High Court
The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...
, recommended Karnan's name to the collegium for appointment as a judge. Despite his work not being well known to the collegium, his appointment was approved by the collegium headed by then Chief Justice of India
K. G. Balakrishnan
Konakuppakatil Gopinathan Balakrishnan (born 12 May 1945) is an Indian judge who has been the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India. He is a former Chief Justice of India.
He was the first judge from Kerala to become the C ...
. Speaking about it to ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'', Ganguly justified the appointment because "he arnanrepresented a certain community that should be represented in the choice of judges", but he, along with other members of the collegium, expressed regret over it later.
Controversies
In November 2011, Karnan wrote to the
National Commission for Scheduled Castes
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is an Indian constitutional body under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India established with a view to provide safeguards against the exploitation of S ...
(NCSC) alleging caste-based harassment from other judges of the Madras High Court. Addressing a press conference organized in his chamber, he said that he had faced such "humiliation and embarrassment since April 2009" and that it still continued. He spoke of a specific incident when a judge "touched him with his foot". This led to an agitation in the campus of the Court. The then NCSC Chairman,
P. L. Punia
Panna Lal Punia, usually known as P. L. Punia, is an Indian politician and Member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh since 2014. He was member of the Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014 and represented Barabanki (Lok Sabha constituency).S. H. Kapadia.
During the time, the then Chief Justice of the Madras High Court,
Rajesh Kumar Agrawal
Rajesh Kumar Agrawal (born 5 May 1953) is the current President of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and a former judge of the Supreme Court of India.
He retired from the Supreme Court on 4 May 2018 and was appointed ...
, wrote to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
P. Sathasivam
Palanisamy Sathasivam (born 27 April 1949) is an Indian judge who served as the 40th Chief Justice of India, holding the office from 2013 to 2014. On retirement from his judicial career, Sathasivam was appointed the 21st List of governors of K ...
, asking him to transfer Justice Karnan to any other High Court. However, Karnan wrote to Sathasivam and Agrawal, stating that he wished to stay on in the Madras High Court, in order to prove the allegations that he had raised against the Chief Justice and the other judges of the Court. Subsequently, Karnan wrote to the joint registrar of the
Right to Information
The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of information act of 2002 (India), Freedom of Information Act ...
section, alleging irregularities in the appointment of district judges. He sought details of the selection process in order to file a complaint before the
President of India
The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...
. In the intervening period, 20 judges of the Madras High Court jointly wrote to the Chief Justice of India requesting Justice Karnan's transfer.
In 2015, Justice Karnan stood up for an intern whom another judge had allegedly sexually harassed in his chamber.
In late 2015, he wrote a letter to Justice Kaul saying he was going on a long leave because of the ‘dummy cases’ he was being allotted. In February 2016, the apex court transferred him to Calcutta HC.
On 23 January 2017, Justice Karnan published an open letter to the prime minister naming "an initial list" of 20 sitting and retired Supreme Court and High Court judges allegedly involved in corruption.
On 8 May 2017, Justice Karnan sentenced Chief Justice of India
Jagdish Singh Khehar
Jagdish Singh Khehar (born 28 August 1952) is a former senior advocate and a former judge, who served as the 44th Chief Justice of India in 2017. Khehar is the first chief justice from the Sikh community. He has been a judge in Supreme Court ...
and seven other SC judges to five-year rigorous imprisonment after holding them guilty under the SC/ST Atrocities Act-1989 and amended Act of 2015.
This led to Supreme Court on 9 May 2017 sentencing
Calcutta High Court
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...
judge Justice C. S. Karnan to six months imprisonment for contempt of court. He finally retired on 12 June and subsequently after a week of his retirement, was arrested by the
Kolkata Police
The Kolkata Police Force (KPF) is one of the two presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area (apart from Bidhannagar and New Town, which are served by the Bidhannag ...
on 21 June 2017 from
Coimbatore
Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...
believed widely as a vendetta executed upon him for uncovering the instances of corruption and prevalent decadence in the judiciary. He was eventually released from prison on 20 December 2017 after completing his six-month sentence.
Calcutta High Court
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...