The Supreme Court’s order convicting and sentencing Justice C.S. Karnan raises serious questions about the court’s commitment not only to natural justice but also to freedom of expression.
TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION. WHAT actually happens is sometimes more bizarre than anything that could be imagined. Until May 9, no one could have imagined that a High Court judge in India could be held guilty of contempt of the Supreme Court and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Until May 18, when this issue went to press, no one could have imagined that a High Court judge, after being held guilty and sentenced to imprisonment by the apex court, could be on the run, evading the process of law or that the Supreme Court’s direction to the police to execute its order to imprison a sitting High Court judge would remain unimplemented beyond a week because the judge was untraceable.
As the Justice C.S. Karnan saga becomes more and more bizarre, the initial derision that greeted Justice Karnan, a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court, when he took on the Supreme Court after it initiated contempt of court proceedings against him soon turned into specticism about the very powers of the Supreme court to punish him for contempt in the manner it chose to.
The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of a letter written by Justice Karnan on January 23 to the Prime Minister seeking an investigation into allegations of corruption by certain judges of the Madras High Court. On February 8, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising the first seven senior-most judges issued notice to Justice Karnan and directed him to refrain from handling any judicial and administrative work as may have been assigned to him in furtherance of the office held by him. He was also directed to return all judicial and administrative files in his possession to the Registrar General of the High Court immediately.
The bench comprised the Chief Justice of India, Jagdish Singh Khehar, and Justices Dipak Misra, J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur, Pinaki Chandra Ghouse and Kurian Joseph. Justice Ghose retires on May 27.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
