The Indian judiciary and judges enjoy a fair amount of power. However, they have a responsibility to uphold justice and fairness. A recent post discussing the case of former judge CS Karnan has once again raised the topic of corruption among Indian judges.
What Did The LinkedIn Post Say?
A week ago, LinkedIn user Rajamani Krishnamurti posted the story of Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan, especially in light of the recent case of Justice Yashwant Varma.
In his post, he wrote, “The man in soot-boot, walking out of jail, is Justice Karnan — Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan. He’s making his return after serving a six-month jail term for contempt of court.
He was a judge of the Madras High Court — the first Dalit judge there. He also holds the distinction of being the first sitting judge to be jailed for contempt of court.
In 2017, he wrote a letter to P M Narendra Modi, alleging corruption concerning 20 judges. For the first time in history, a sitting judge accused fellow judges of corruption.
The central government, however, refused to make the letter public.
The Supreme Court charged Justice Karnan with contempt of court.
Karnan, in turn, sentenced the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and some other judges to five years’ rigorous imprisonment.
In the end, the Supreme Court prevailed in this showdown.
The Supreme Court order said: apologise or serve six months’ rigorous imprisonment in the cooler.
Karnan refused to apologise and served his six-month jail term.
At that time, those opposed to Karnan claimed he was mentally unstable. However, now, after crores of black money were discovered from a judge’s house, it seems that Karnan was speaking the truth.”
The Story Of Judge CS Karnan
Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan, or CS Karnan, was a judge at the Calcutta High Court from 2016 to 2017 and, before that, at the Madras High Court from 2009 to 2016. However, the reason he is most known for is being the first Indian High Court judge to be punished for contempt while in office.
His letter to the Prime Minister in 2017 naming “an initial list” of 20 sitting and retired Supreme Court and High Court judges allegedly involved in corruption was not the first time that he had stood up for something wrong.
Before this, he wrote to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) in November 2011, claiming that various judges from the Madras High Court had harassed him based on his caste.
During a press conference in his chamber, he stated that he had suffered from “humiliation and embarrassment since April 2009” and also spoke about how a judge “touched him with his foot.”
Read More: Why Is No One Talking About Rampant Corruption In Judiciary After Techie’s Suicide?
Why Is This Relevant Now?
These issues might be coming to light now, but surprisingly, it has been known that there has been corruption in the judiciary for a long time. This post, along with the case of this particular judge, is even more relevant in today’s context. The recent suicide of Bengaluru techie Atul Subhash was not solely due to his ex-wife but also because of the way the judge behaved with him.
While there was a comment by the Supreme Court about the increasing frequency of misuse of Indian laws by women, there was no mention of the judge or the accusations of her not only asking for a bribe but also behaving in an inhumane manner with the victim.
In his suicide letter, Subhash wrote that the judge allegedly said, “Hum adjust karayenge, mai Rs 5 lakh lungi, aur mai settle kara dungi. Issi court me sab settle ho jayega. Bahut hi reasonable amount hai, itna paisa kamate ho tum. Nikita bhi adjust karegi. Nahi to jeewan bhar tum aur tumhare maa baap court kacheri ke chakkar kaat te rahenge.” He further stated that the judge laughed when his wife asked him why he hadn’t committed suicide.
In a letter addressed to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, the victim wrote, “Today Indian courts have become the breeding ground of open corruption.” There was no comment against the judge or any kind of public investigation in this matter.
This, along with the recent case involving Delhi High Court Judge Yashwant Varma and the discovery of a substantial sum of unaccounted cash at his official residence, has put a spotlight on corruption in the Indian judiciary.
This is also not the first time that corruption among Indian judges has been discussed, but previously, it has mostly been limited to regular folks on social media platforms.
On the subreddit /delhi, under the post “Indian Judiciary is this bad? Anyone have personal experience like this?”, user shadowreflex10 wrote about their own experience: “So true, my grandfather was a tax officer; he was framed in a corruption case. He told me that his testimony was fudged a lot and that all his statements were taken out of context. The judiciary is one of the most corrupt institutions that exist in India, even worse than government departments. But he was a giga Chad, he pursued his LLB and fought his own case, which went on for around 5+ years, and actually turned the tide; now it’s about the compensation the other party has to offer him for all this harassment.”
On another subreddit, r/LegalAdviceIndia, under the thread “I want to know how corrupt judges in India are,” user LawyerfromBengal also wrote, “Saying this as a lawyer, I speak from personal experience and from stories from my seniors. Except for a few— and I mean very few— honest judges, all judges have a price.
It’s just that most of the judges don’t take money for small cases and only accept it when larger parties are involved. This trend of accepting money for favourable judgments/orders occurs in the lower/trial courts as well as the high courts and, in some cases, even the highest courts/tribunals.
It’s just that as you climb the hierarchy of the courts, the amount of money to be given as a bribe increases. As for the amounts asked, most of them are in excess of one lakh for trial courts/lower courts, several lakhs/few crores for high courts, and much more for supreme courts.
I won’t name names, but Google judges that were impeached/about to be impeached in India, and you can find the ones that were caught with their pants down in bribes. Now think about the ones that were careful enough not to get caught.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: BBC, The Economic Times, Business Standard
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: CS Karnan, CS Karnan jail, CS Karnan judge, CS Karnan supreme court, CS Karnan arrest, Judiciary, indian Judiciary, indian Judiciary corruption, corruption, indian judges, indian courts
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