Absconding Retired Judge CS Karnan Arrested In Coimbatore After A Month In Hiding

Updated on: 20 June 2017 8:40 pm

Justice CS Karnan, the high court judge-turned-fugitive – was arrested by the West Bengal police in Coimbatore on Tuesday evening. He earned the dubious distinction of being the first high court judge to be arrested following a court order.

The arrest brings to an end more than a month long hunt for the judge who went underground after the Supreme Court ordered his imprisonment for six months, holding him guilty of contempt. Once the SC pronounced its order on May 8 Karnan went underground and even retired on June 12 as he completed 62 years.

But a six-member police team from West Bengal led by DGP Raj Kanojia camped in |Chennai and tracked his whereabouts with the help of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh police.

“We got a tip off about his presence in a house on the out skirts of Coimbatore. Our team scouted the place and on confirmation about his presence we moved in and arrested him around 7 pm today,” Kanojia told Outlook. Peter Ramesh Kumar, the advocate spearheading Karnan’s defence also confirmed his arrest.

The police team is expected to move the former judge to a secret place and fly him to Kolkata tomorrow. “They would need a transit remand to fly him out of Tamil Nadu,” a police officer said.

Despite several attempts, Justice Karnan failed to get any relief from the apex court's vacation benches which refused to hear his plea seeking a stay of its jail term order.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court had directed Justice Karnan to appear before it on February 13, 2017 to speak out before the apex court initiates contempt charges.

Justice Karnan had said the Contempt of Courts Act was a "cathartic jurisprudence which belonged to the Dark Ages, the era of inquisition and torture, distinct from the classical Roman Law which constitutes the foundation of modern jurisprudence".

He had also sought a stay on all "further proceedings" pursuant to the May 9 order. Earlier, the apex court had issued a bailable warrant against him to secure his presence in the contempt case.

He had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in Indian judicial history, and had asked for restoration of his powers as a precondition for his re- appearance, but the plea was rejected.

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. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations and run-ins with its then chief justice and fellow judges.

The high court judge had on February 15, 2016 stayed his transfer order, which was suspended by the Supreme Court.

The apex court had earlier even asked the chief justice of the Madras High Court not to assign him any judicial work.

(With agency inputs)