Introspection : Justice C. S. Karnan matter unprecedented.

I am sure many of us have been reading with concern the various developments related to Justice C. S. Karnan of Calcutta High Court.

It is not the first time that corruption charges have been levelled against the judges of High Courts and Supreme Court of India. Mr. Shanti Bhushan and many other leading jurists of our country including some retired Chief Justices of India have publicly spoken in the past about the corruption in judiciary. However, no action was ever taken by Supreme Court against any of them!

When Justice Karnan alleged about certain judges being corrupt, it would have been appropriate if the government and Supreme Court had asked Justice Karnan to submit documentary evidences in support of the assertions made by him. If the documentary evidences were submitted and found to be in order then the concerned judges should have been investigated impartially and based on the enquiry report, punitive action should have been taken against the guilty judges. In case Justice Karnan was not able to submit any documentary evidences then punitive action should have been taken against him.

Supreme Court, by taking action against Justice Karnan without asking him to submit documentary evidences, has set an avoidable and unwarranted precedent. If this can happen to a sitting judge, what would happen to a common man of this country if he/she complained publicly about a judge being corrupt.

Around a year back, when I came to know that a corrupt and unethical lawyer's name was being recommended to be a High Court judge, with documentary evidence, I had written to as many as 100 authorities in India - covering everybody who was somebody related to the process of appointment of judges, right upto the highest authority. As expected, there was no response. Then I sent 100 RTI applications to PIOs of all the said authorities. The last reply I received was from Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, informing me that my complaint with documentary evidence was placed before the Chief Justice of India and members of Collegium but they decided to ignore it and went ahead with recommendation; it was placed before the Prime Minister, who decided to ignore it and recommended the name; and it was placed before the President of India, who decided to ignore it and accepted the recommendation. The letter further said that the warrant of appointment of said person as judge of High Court was enclosed and no further information could be provided since Supreme Court vide order dated 04.12.2009 in SLP (C) No. 32855 of 2009 has stayed the directions of CIC for disclosing information relating to appointment/transfer of judges in higher judiciary".

In this context, an insightful news-item by Dr. Ved Pratap Vaidik is worth reading and introspection :

https://www.nayaindia.com/vaidik-column/supreme-court-justice-karnan-6-months-jail-627710.html