Supreme Court restrains Tamil Nadu HC judge from acting against Chief Justice

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday restrained controversial Tamil Nadu High Court judge C S Karnan from suo motu dealing with the issue of appointment of junior judges in the state and stayed an interim order issued by him, which sparked off a constitutional crisis in the high court. The high court registrar general had approached the apex court to seek a stay of the proceedings in Karnan’s court after the latter took on High Court Chief Justice Sanjiv Kishan Kaul and warned him of contempt action should he interfere with his orders.

Acting on the RG’s plea, a bench, comprising Chief Justice of India H L Dattu and Justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy, stayed a status quo order passed by Karnan in the matter of recruitments and restrained him from proceeding any further on the issue, warning that this process shall not be interfered with and should permitted to continue.

The cataclysmic events began on April 16 when Justice Karnan suo motu took up the issue of appointments and stayed the interviews being conducted by a five-judge committee and the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission for the selection of junior division judicial officers.

The next day, a high court division bench stayed his order, observing that the “HC administrative control is vested only with the Chief Justice and it is his prerogative to distribute business of the High Court, both judicial and administrative”. Later, in an administrative order, Chief Justice Kaul directed the court registry not to list the suo motu petition before Justice Karnan.