Madras HC judge drags Mayawati, Paswan in to a judicial issue, accuses CJ of caste bias

With the ongoing drama between the judges and lawyers at the Madras High Court subsiding over the past couple of days, another problem has resurfaced for the Chief Justice of the HC with a new twist. Another judge of the HC, CS Karnan, has now taken an internal HC matter to the Supreme Court and other political leaders.

The judge CS Karnan, a Dalit, has been protesting against other judges and the Chief Justice of the court over the issue of judicial appointments in the court. He has now taken his allegations to the next level and tried to involved Dalit leaders Mayawati and Ram Vilas Paswan into the issue.

ToI reports,

The SC had on May 11 restrained Justice Karnan from initiating suo motu contempt proceedings against the chief justice and others on the issue of selection of judicial officers. Justice Karnan had alleged irregular, unfair and biased constitution of the selection committee by the chief justice. The SC had restrained him from any interference in the selection process.Barely had the restraint order sunk in when Justice Karnan wrote two letters, one on August 19 and the other on August 21, reiterating the same grievance: that the chief justice was inimical towards him and was neither assigning him appropriate category of cases for adjudication nor including him as a member in any important judges' committee in the HC.

The August 21 letter was unprecedented since Justice Karnan appeared to have breached the wall of judicial independence by inviting attention of politic ians to his perceived problems at the hands of the HC chief justice.

In the letter, addressed to the President, Prime Minister, Union Law minister, Consumer Affairs Minister Ramvilas Paswan, former UP chief minister Mayawati, Tamil Nadu governor, TN chief minister and chairpersons of the national commissions for SCs and STs, he says that the CJI has committed an atrocity against him under the SC/ST Atrocities act, and asks that the CJ should settle the issue amicably.

TOI quotes Justice Karnan as stating, “I am all out to clarify and settle this most atrocious case for which I sought financial assistance to proceed accordingly, but it appears you (the chief justice) have even denied me this. This behaviour and attitude towards me is most insulting to say the least.”

The Chief Justice of India has however decided to wait and watch, according to the report.