Justice C S Karnan of the Madras high court has written three letters citing “caste bias” in the collegium system of judges’ selection, protesting non-allocation of significant portfolio to him and demanding special audit of the high court accounts.
“It is with a heavy heart that I am desirous of proceeding on a long leave as a result of the harassment and belittlement meted out to me by you lordship, and to ensure that the decorum of the court is maintained to the satisfaction of the general public,” he wrote to Madras high court chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Saturday. He accused the chief justice of “continuously harassing” him.
He called the collegium system of appointing judges “doubtful system that promoted only high caste candidates”. The judge added it should be rooted out “lock, stock and barrel”.
Justice Karnan is no stranger to controversies. At least three chief justices are said to have written to the Supreme Court heaping allegations against him.
He became the country’s first judge to complain to the National Commission of SCs and STs that he suffered caste discrimination and harassment at the hands of his colleagues. Nothing came out of the complaint.
The judge once barged into the court hall of a division bench while hearing was on and thundered he disapproved of the selection method for judges and that if necessary he himself would become a litigant.
On Saturday, he released the three letters which started trending on social media groups.
“Since your lordship (chief justice Kaul) is solely in charge of the Madras high court, and invested with administrative power, your lordship has elected to allot me insignificant/dummy portfolios while those juniors to me, have been allotted significant assignments, which is tantamount to belittling my capacity as a judge of many years in this august court,” he said in the letter about insignificant porfolios allotted to him.
“Being a dalit, do you expect me to take such treatment lying down?”
The judge alleged “superior castes” had appropriated the judges’ appointment system in his letter to the Union law minister.
“It is most obvious that selection adopted by the collegium system is only to entertain their own favourites comprising close relatives, distant relatives and in the absence of the abovementioned choices, then the selection would go to close associates and good friends.”
He said the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) had plugged all the “glaring loopholes”.
The judge added the Supreme Court should have heard all other high courts during the case against NJAC.
The third letter addressed to principal accountant general in Chennai demanded a special audit to determine whether the chief justice and registrar-general were eligible to utilize government funds.
“If you ascertain that they have misused the government funds, then I request you to consider whether initiation of appropriate proceedings against the said persons could be taken.”