Suffering From Severe Depression After Retirement : CS Karnan In Bail Plea Before Madras HC In Abusive… – Live Law – Indian Legal News

C S Karnan, former High Court judge, has told the Madras High Court that he has been "suffering from serious and severe depression after his retirement", while seeking regular bail in a case relating to uploading of abusive online videos.

The former judge of the Madras High Court has been under custody in the case since his arrest by the Chennai police on December 2.

In the bail plea, Karnan has said that he had been suffering from serious depression for some time, which aggravated after he underwent treatment for COVID19, causing him to act in an "improper manner".

"The petitioner during such time was under severe trauma and not of proper mind set and due such severe depression the petitioner without full comprehension of his certain actions has been done by him and such actions were done without realizing its consequences. The petitioner is undergoing treatment for the same", he said in the bail plea.

He also pointed out that he has not uploaded any 'obscene or abusive video' following his undertaking given to the police after he was served Section 41A notice on November 26 last year.

The petition added that Karnan, being in a state of depression and serious health issues, is finding it difficult to cope up with the situation.

In this backdrop, he urged the Court for bail, undertaking to co-operate with the police investigation and to abide by any condition that the Court may impose.

The FIR was registered against Karnan on the complaint by Advocate Devika over his objectionable videos threatening sexual crimes against women relations of High Court and Supreme Court judges. The police invoked Sections 228,294B,506(ii),509 IPC and section 67A of Information technology Act 1988 and section 4 of Tamil Nadu Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 in the FIR.

Subsequently, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking action against the ex-judge.

On November 10, the High Court had ordered the blocking of the objectionable video links. Taking strong exception to the "tirades" of the ex-judge, a division bench of Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha said:

"It is rather unfortunate to note that the ninth respondent (Karnan), who held an important constitutional post, has gone to such a level to repeatedly make scandalous, obscene, vituperative & unparliamentary remarks against former & sitting judges of SC & HC and their family members, especially women."

In May 2017, CS Karnan became the first sitting High Court judge to be held guilty of criminal contempt of court. A constitution bench of the Supreme Court sentenced him to six months imprisonment for his multiple acts of public utterances against judges and interference with the administration of justice. As a judge, Karnan had also extraordinary acts like passing a judicial order to stay his own transfer and issuing an arrest warrant against Supreme Court judges.

After the sentence, he went into hiding. He was arrested a month later and was sent to Presidency Jail in Kolkata, where he underwent imprisonment till December 2017

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Suffering From Severe Depression After Retirement : CS Karnan In Bail Plea Before Madras HC In Abusive... - Live Law - Indian Legal News