Madras High Court Judge C.S. Karnan always raised the controversies. There were complaints about his judiciary.
On Monday addressing the media at the gates Karnan said India “is a racist nation” and he was “ashamed to be born here”.
He also declared that he would “cancel birthright” and migrate to “a country where there is no racism”.
Karnan was appointed as judge on March 30, 2009. He announced that he would issue a judicial order directing the Chennai police commissioner to arrest, under the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act, the two Supreme Court judges who had earlier in the day ordered that no work be allocated to him.
He told the huge gathering of media persons plus members of the public, and lawyers that.“They (the two Supreme Court judges) had passed the order against me only because I am a Dalit. This hurts not just me, it hurts 125 crore people of this country. Am I a subordinate of Supreme Court judges? What mistake have I committed? On what grounds did they pass their order? I was not given a hearing, no documents, no evidence. I questioned the increasing racism and they transferred me”.
“I will drag them (two judges) to the Parliament. I will seek their impeachment. I will prove my innocence. Upper castes dominate all the high courts in the country and the Supreme Court.”
Karnan first hit the national headlines in November 2011 when his complaint to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), alleging that he was being harassed and victimised by brother judges because he was a Dalit, became public.
In March 2014 the Supreme Court condemned Justice Karnan’s behaviour observing.“The sudden unfamiliar incident made us fume inwardly on this raw unconventional protest that was unexpected, uncharitable and ungenerous and, to say the least, it was indecorous.”
He even called a ‘suo moto judicial order’ staying his transfer to Calcutta high court to Dalit political leaders Ramvilas Paswan and Mayawati, besides the chairman of the National Commission for SCs and STs.
Finally the apex court intervened and stayed his interim order for undermining the authority of the Chief Justice.
Justice Karnan had also dubbed “autocratic” the collegium system of selecting judges.