Kolkata: Judge Karnan moved to single bench day after judges' spat

KOLKATA: A day after the spat between two judges in open court, Chief Justice Manjula Chellur removed Justice C.S. Karnan from the division bench and made him a single bench judge to hear petitions on primary education. Justice Karnan went on leave for the day. Senior judge Justice Ashim Kumar Roy will be heading a division with another judge to hear bail petitions.
However, the high court bar association sticks to the decision of boycotting Justice C.S.Karnan’s court even after he resumes duty.
Justice Karnan had sparked a controversy on Tuesday after he changed the order delivered earlier in open court. He granted bail to the accused in the Vivekanda Flyover collapse case, weeks after the division bench of Justice Ashim Kumar Roy and Justice C.S. Karnan turned down the bail application. Justice Karnan didn’t follow the usual procedure to make amends to the order. Neither did he intimate his senior judge Justice Roy about the change he made while sitting at his chamber.
Justice Roy took it as an insult and held that it was illegal. Later, he took up the matter with the Chief Justice. Justice Karnan, not a stranger to controversy, stayed away from court in the afternoon. Before joining the Calcutta high court, Justice Karnan had stayed his transfer order by the Chief Justice of India after it got approved by the President’s office. Later, however, he joined Calcutta high court.
Prior to this, Justice C S Karnan had shot off three letters: one raising caste bias in the collegium system of selection of judges; two, against non-allocation of a 'significant' portfolio to him, and three, demanding a special audit of the high court accounts.
Protesting against the 'dummy portfolio' of cases allocated to him, Justice Karnan said he was proceeding on long leave. "It is with a heavy heart that I am desirous of proceeding on a long leave as a result of the harassment and belittlement meted out to me by your lordship, and to ensure the decorum of the court is maintained to the satisfaction of the general public", he had said in a letter to Madras HC chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul. Dubbing the collegium system of appointing judges a 'doubtful system' that promoted only 'high caste candidates', he said it should be rooted out 'lock, stock and barrel'. At least three successive chief justices are said to have written to the Supreme Court heaping allegations against him.