On July 4, the Supreme Court published its reasons, hitherto unknown, for convicting Justice CS Karnan for contempt of court and sentencing him to six months in jail. The Calcutta High Court judge was convicted on May 9 after he made repeated allegations of corruption against several members of the higher judiciary and accused them of targeting him because he was Dalit. Through its latest order, the Supreme Court has expressed hope that “public debate” might contribute to a “wholesome understanding” of the case. This article is a modest effort to answer that call, and argues that the Supreme Court, in convicting Karnan, departed from a number of procedural norms of its own making. In these deviations, the court may have itself undermined the judiciary in ways far more corrosive than Karnan’s theatrics.
Firstly, the Supreme Court’s original May 9 verdict did not disclose any reasons for Karnan’s conviction. It simply stated “detailed order to follow”. In scores of judgements, the Supreme Court has criticised exactly this type of judicial behaviour as being violative of the principles of natural justice. Justice Deepak Mishra (one of the judges on the bench that convicted Karnan), while heading a bench in January, passed an order censuring…
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