Supreme Court: Due to non-appearance of Justice C.S. Karnan before the Court in the contempt proceedings initiated against him, the 7-judge bench of J.S. Khehar, CJ and Dipak Misra, J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur, P.C. Ghose and Kurian Joseph, JJ directed the matter to be listed on 10.03.2017.
Certain counsel had appeared before the Court without a power of attorney. The Court, hence, said that no one should appear in this matter, without due consent and authorization. Directing Justice Karnan to appear before the Court in person, the Bench said that the contempt proceedings are a matter strictly between the Court and the alleged contemnor and anyone who enters appearance and disrupts the proceedings of this case in future, will be proceeded against, in consonance with law.
On 08.02.2017, the Court had restrained Justice Karnan from handling any judicial or administrative work, as may have been assigned to him, in furtherance of the office held by him and had asked him to appear before the Court on 13.02.2017. The said order of the Court came after Justice Karnan had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to take actions against the corrupt sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court and Madras High Court when he was a Judge of the Madras High Court and had passed an injunction against his own transfer orders. [In Re: Justice C.S. Karnan, 2017 SCC OnLine SC 122, order dated 13.02.1017]