Justice CS Karnan seeks bail, Supreme Court says 'go to jail`

Calcutta High Court's former judge Justice CS Karnan was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Supreme Court in May for contempt.

New Delhi: Calcutta High Court's former judge Justice CS Karnan, who was arrested in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking bail and suspension of six-month sentence awarded to him in May.

The SC, however, refused to entertain Karnan's bail plea.

A vacation bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul also said: "We can't suspend the sentence as the order of the sentence was passed by a seven-judge bench."

"Sorry, nevertheless," Justice Chandrachud said, declining the bail plea.

The bench said this as Justice Karnan's counsel Mathew J Nadumpara urged it to grant bail to the former judge, who was arrested by the West Bengal Police yesterday. Nedumpara said that this court had all the powers and should grant the interim bail till the reopening of the court.

To this, the vacation bench said it could not override the order of the seven-judge bench.

The former judge was taken to Kolkata by flight from Chennai today. 

Calcutta High Court's former judge Justice CS Karnan was sentenced to six months imprisonment by the Supreme Court for contempt.

Karnan, who was eluding arrest for more than a month, retired from service, a few days back.