Former Calcutta High Court judge C.S. Karnan, serving a prison sentence awarded by the Supreme Court for contempt of court, will include his “orders against Supreme Court judges” in his autobiography, one of his lawyers, W. Peter Ramesh Kumar, told The Hindu . Mr. Kumar met Mr. Karnan at the Presidency jail on Thursday.
However, earlier, another lawyer, Mathews J. Nedumpara, had said Mr. Karnan was planning to publish “a biography” and not an “autobiography”.
“He [Mr. Karnan] is going to include his orders against Supreme Court judges in his autobiography. He is doing this as part of his initiative seeking judicial reforms,” Mr. Kumar said.
He said that to Mr. Karnan it is “immaterial whether those orders are executed or not,” Mr. Kumar said. Mr. Karnan is serving a six months’ sentence.
Mr. Kumar said Mr. Karnan would release his autobiography soon after his release from prison in December. “His [Mr. Karnan’s] autobiography is almost complete and he will publish it after his release on December 20,” he added.
As for the contents, Mr. Nedumpara said earlier that it would focus on “judicial reforms mainly on the process of appointment of judges and the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971”. Mr. Nedumpara had said that Mr. Karnan was “preparing to work as a lawyer”.
Contempt of court
The seven-judge Supreme Court Bench in its judgment said “the actions of Karnan constituted the grossest and gravest action of contempt of court. He is therefore liable to be punished for his unsavoury actions and behaviour.”
