Justice Karnan

Madras HC judge claims victimization - The Times of India

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: A serving judge of the Madras high court has claimed to being victimized on caste grounds, accusing his brother judges of trying to put him down and subjecting him to humiliation for taking up litigations in an independent manner.

Justice C S Karnan has petitioned the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and sought an inquiry. While he has not mentioned caste as the reason for alleged prejudice against him, the judge's decision to approach the dalit watchdog has seen the commission view the case as one of caste discrimination.

Sources said NCSC chairman P L Punia has written to Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia urging him to look into the matter. When contacted, Punia refused to dwell on details, saying the aggrieved judge was a dalit and the complaint was being treated with all seriousness.

Justice Karnan, in his three-page letter to NCSC, said his independent way of dealing with petitions had annoyed brother judges.

He claimed colleagues humiliated him by deliberately pointing their shoes at him at a social function and by crushing a name plate carrying his name.

Justice Karnan even alleged that lawyers backed by judges tried to instigate him in the court premises and an investigation of their telephone call records could be carried out to prove their involvement.

When contacted, Justice Karnan told TOI that he was ready for a "public inquiry" to prove his allegations of harassment and discrimination. Justice Karnan, who has been in the eye of a storm over some of his rulings, said he would use the inquiry to disprove allegations against him as well.

In his petition, the judge said, "... at one of the marriage celebrations in Chennai where one of my brother judges, who was seated to the right side of me, crossed over his leg deliberately touching mine and on the second occasion at the Republic Day celebrations, the same judge again seated next to me and slyly removed the name slip which was attached to the arm of my chair with a string and stuck it to the bottom of his right leg where it got crumpled."

Attempts to instigate are repeatedly mentioned by Justice Karnan. "On another public occasion when we brother judges congregated once again for a public celebration, one of the brother judges behind the row of mine kept on shaking my chair repeatedly with the intention to annoy me," he said.

According to Justice Karnan, his refusal to be part of a group or coordinated consultations on cases was not liked by some judges who expected him to conform to the unwritten code. He said the objective behind such behaviour was to "reduce (his) role to subjugation".

His decision not to kowtow to expectations in court proceedings led to his sidelining. He said he had been deprived of participating in (events) in his native district of Cuddalore as special guest while he had also been denied participation in the National Judicial Academy except once when he had just joined the HC.

In a serious charge, the judge said 70 lawyers "encouraged and financed" by a few judges would assemble on the fifth floor of the HC during court hours in an inebriated state and would try to instigate him, and some of them would even gather in the corridor outside his room with the same objective.

Justice Karnan, talking to TOI, referred to canards and allegations against him. He said, "Just because I hail from a humble background, they cannot target me. I rose to this level due to sheer hard work and merit. During a felicitation after my elevation to the high court, lawyers offered me a crown. I have been living up to their expectations. Now, my reputation is in tatters. As a public servant receiving salary from public exchequer, I owe an explanation to people. I am ready for a public inquiry."