Calcutta high court judge CS Karnan might have crossed over to Nepal or Bangladesh to evade arrest and his legal team is preparing to approach the President for relief, the judge’s legal adviser said on Thursday.
The revelation came a day after police forces scrambled across cities to catch hold of Karnan, who is facing six months in jail for contempt of the Supreme Court.
“We are preparing for the next level of legal battle and he needs to be in hiding until that time,” W Peter Ramesh Kumar, an advocate at Madras high court, told HT.
The 61-year-old judge has been on a collision course with the top court for months, an unprecedented face-off that has seen a string of orders issued from both sides.
The adviser said high court judges are appointed by the President and that is why they will approach Pranab Mukherjee to get interim bail in the contempt case
Asked whether the President can grant an interim bail, Kumar said: “No, He cannot. The seven-judge bench’s ruling cannot be quashed by anyone in India. That is why we are approaching Justice Karnan’s appointing authority, as there is no other option. Precisely, this is why we want the President to refer the case to the International Court of Justice, just as was done in the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav.”
Source: HindustanTimes