Chennai : Days after he created a stir in judicial circles by staying his own transfer order, controversial Madras High Court judge Justice C S Karnan on Tuesday wrote to Chief Justice of India and two other Supreme Court judges saying he had passed the order in a state of mental frustration.
On February 15, three days after the Supreme Court ordered his transfer to the Calcutta High Court, a defiant Justice Karnan had passed a suo motu order staying his transfer. Besides, he threatened to direct the Chennai City Police to register a FIR against two Supreme Court judges – Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice R Banumathi – for passing an order directing the Madras High Court Registry not to allocate any work to him and also restraining him from passing any order. He claimed that he was being targeted for being a Dalit.
A day later, he had met the Chief Justice of India in New Delhi. On Tuesday, Justice Karnan wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India and the two Supreme Court judges in which he said: “On 15.02.2016, I had sent an erroneous order due to my mental frustration resulting in loss of mental balance, since I was disturbed on account of various incidents.”
In the letter, he reiterated his earlier charges that a brother judge had “intentionally kicked me and then apologised” during a wedding reception in Chennai. The same judge also “played another prank by untying the arm chair reservation slip of my chair, placing it on the ground and trampling it with his feet.”
Justice Karnan said he was constrained to recall these incidents “only because I maintain a very social outlook in the mainstream of society and to my allegiance to the high reputation of our prestigious court.
Hereafter, I will still continue to foster a harmonious attitude to one and all, and will appreciate your kind reciprocation…” He marked a copy of the letter to the President, the Prime Minister, the Union Law Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
