Madras High Court rejects 2011 petition against retired Justice CS Karnan

The Madras High Court recently rejected a petition that was filed in 2011 seeking to restrain retired high court judge CS Karnan from making public statements against constitutional authorities and the judiciary..A bench of Justices MS Ramesh and AD Maria Clete rejected the petition filed by one B Stalin, holding that it was not maintainable.The bench said that the Judges (Protection) Act prohibits courts from entertaining proceedings against a judge for any act committed or words spoken while performing his or her official duties.“Under Section 3 of the Judges (Protection) Act, 1985, no court shall entertain any proceeding against a Judge for any act thing or word committed, done or spoken by him when, or in the course of, acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official or judicial function. Since the petitioner in this Writ Petition seeks for a Mandamus to restrain a named sitting Judge of the Madras High Court [now retired], which is impermissible in law, this Writ Petition is not maintainable and the objections made by the Registry in this regard is sustainable,” the High Court said..Hence, it directed the High Court Registry to return the case papers to the petitioner’s counsel.The petitioner had urged the court to restrain Justice Karnan from making public statements, “whether written or oral against constitutional authorities or any wing of the judiciary or advocates in public media.”The petitioner had also prayed that justice Karnan be prevented from “indulging in any castigating act of defamatory, scurrilous, derogatory, libelous, scandalous, and ruthless outcries.”.Justice Karnan a former judge of the Madras and the Calcutta High Courts, was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Supreme Court in May 2017 for contempt of court.At the time, he was a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court. Justice Karnan soon after went into hiding.He was arrested on June 20, 2017 from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, a few days before his retirement and went on to serve six months in jail as per the Supreme Court verdict before being released.Later, he was arrested in a separate case for making derogatory remarks against judges and women in videos circulated online.He was granted bail in that matter by the Madras High Court in 2021..[Read Order]