After the Supreme Court slapped him with suo motu contempt charges, Calcutta high court Justice CS Karnan has written a letter dated yesterday to the Supreme Court, vowing to file a criminal case against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and another Supreme Court judge under the SC / ST Atrocities Act for allegedly victimising him because of his caste.

Karnan also wrote in his letter (see redacted copy of letter below) that the apex court’s seven-judge suo motu contempt petition against him should be held in abeyance until the CJI retires and that Karnan’s power to handle judicial and administrative court, which were suspended by the apex court’s contempt notice, should be returned to him.

The optics of this aren’t great, whichever way you look at it. As seen before, such as in the case of the alleged sexual harassment by former apex court Justice AK Ganguly, the Supreme Court seems to lack the power to deal with edge cases of alleged judicial misconduct.

The power of transferring judges between high courts was clearly not sufficient to reign in Karnan.

And, as seen in this case, the instrument of contempt in enforcing discipline in the judicial ranks, meanwhile, is rather blunt (though it eventually seemed to have worked a little against retired Justice Markandey Katju).