Karnan pleads for relief, but SC refuses to oblige
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New DelhiChennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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Calcutta HC Judge Is Still Underground
The Calcutta high court
judge C S Karnan continued to remain firmly underground on a day when
the Supreme Court refused to suspend its order awarding six-month jail
term to him for contempt of court.
A police team from West Bengal,
headed by a directorgeneral of police-rank officer, could not pursue any
lead even three days after it landed in Chennai to arrest the judge and
lodge him in jail as directed by the Supreme Court on May 9.
“Neither the West Bengal police nor the Tamil Nadu police could establish any contact with any source having even remote knowledge of the judge's whereabouts,“ an officer told TOI.
A former staffer of the judge, denying any knowledge of his location, said one could send queries by WhatsApp.
Earlier in the day , as Justice Karnan's lawyer pleaded with the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing on suspension of sentence, the bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar asked him to first file petition before the registry and the case would be heard by the same bench which had held the judge guilty for contempt.
Justice Khehar said it was a “conscious“ decision taken by the seven-judge bench and any plea against the order would be heard by the same bench. Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara, appearing for Justice Karnan who has been evading arrest, tried to hand over the copy of the petition to the CJI but he refused to accept it. “We are not the registry. You file the petition before the registry . You cannot keep on handing papers to us. You have to follow the procedure,“ Justice Khehar said.
As the Supreme Court has gone into summer recess, it is unlikely that the seven-judge bench, which had sentenced Justice Karnan, would assemble to hear his plea for suspension of his sentence.
The seven-judge bench of the apex court had on May 9 passed the order sentencing Justice Karnan to jail by holding him guilty of contempt of court and sentencing him to six months imprisonment, a day after he defiantly ordered eight apex court judges to be put behind bars. It had also ordered the West Bengal police to take him into custody immediately.
“Neither the West Bengal police nor the Tamil Nadu police could establish any contact with any source having even remote knowledge of the judge's whereabouts,“ an officer told TOI.
A former staffer of the judge, denying any knowledge of his location, said one could send queries by WhatsApp.
Earlier in the day , as Justice Karnan's lawyer pleaded with the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing on suspension of sentence, the bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar asked him to first file petition before the registry and the case would be heard by the same bench which had held the judge guilty for contempt.
Justice Khehar said it was a “conscious“ decision taken by the seven-judge bench and any plea against the order would be heard by the same bench. Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara, appearing for Justice Karnan who has been evading arrest, tried to hand over the copy of the petition to the CJI but he refused to accept it. “We are not the registry. You file the petition before the registry . You cannot keep on handing papers to us. You have to follow the procedure,“ Justice Khehar said.
As the Supreme Court has gone into summer recess, it is unlikely that the seven-judge bench, which had sentenced Justice Karnan, would assemble to hear his plea for suspension of his sentence.
The seven-judge bench of the apex court had on May 9 passed the order sentencing Justice Karnan to jail by holding him guilty of contempt of court and sentencing him to six months imprisonment, a day after he defiantly ordered eight apex court judges to be put behind bars. It had also ordered the West Bengal police to take him into custody immediately.
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