A seven-judge bench headed by CJI JS Khehar Supreme Court today ordered sitting Calcutta HC judge C S Karnan guilty of contempt of court and punishing him with six month jail.

Earlier HC Judge Karnan in an unprecedented move given 5 year sentence to the seven judge bench quoting The SC And The ST(Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

But, the Supreme Court said contempt power does not recognise or differentiate who is what a judge or a common man. “Whosoever commits contempt gets punished,” the bench said while sentencing Justice Karnan.

The Supreme Court ordered West Bengal DGP to take into custody the disgraced judge, who never tired in playing his dalit background to berate and pass unconscionable orders against the seven judges who had intimated contempt proceeding against him for making wild allegations against his colleagues in Madras HC, from where he was transferred to Calcutta HC.

Additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, senior advocate KK Venugopal and Rupinder Singh Suri agreed with the apex court that Justice Karnan has committed gross contempt of court and needed to be punished exemplarily.

As per SC order Karnan, who was to retire on June 11, if executed then will spend the last month of his tenure as judge and five months thereafter in jail according to the Supreme Court order.

Justice Karnan was sentenced in absentia. Taking note of his past purported judicial orders passed despite being stripped of judicial work, the Supreme Court also barred media from reporting his statements in future.