The last two decades have seen numerous cases of scams and corruption involving political bigwigs. The Indian judiciary has been a witness to them amidst the media glare and international focus. Side by side, various other social issues and petitions have also garnered limelight and activities of lower courts, high courts and Supreme Court have been under much introspection. Recently, the case of Justice C S Karnan of the Calcutta High Court has surpassed all the previous examples.  Justin C S Karnan has deferred to a request of Chief Justice of India to appear before Supreme Court. This has not only been an unprecedented example but rang alarm bells across the country as well. Incidentally, in January, Justice Karnan addressed a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing 20 current and former judges of Indian judiciary of rampant corruption. In view of that, Supreme Court of India summoned Justice CS Karnan to explain those allegations.

The situation has turned 'ugly' as Justice C S Karnan has played the 'caste' card, creating an unwanted chaos in Indian judiciary domain. When a seven judge bench of Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to Justice CS Karnan, he replied, "the characteristic of this order clearly shows the upper caste judges are taking law into their hands and misusing their judicial power by operating the same against a SC/ST Judge with mala fide intention of getting rid of him”. Incidentally this isn't the first time when Justice CS Karnan has caused 'embarrassment' to Indian Judiciary with his 'indiscipline'. In the past he has made awkward allegations against fellow judges and even got engaged in a verbal altercation in open court concerning granting bail to accused in Kolkata Flyover collapse case.

In 2011 this same Justice CS Karnan in a press conference accused a fellow high court judge of caste discrimination. He went to say that the fellow judge touched him with his foot. In April 2015, he began suo moto proceedings against Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Justice CS Karnan remarked that the Chief Justice harassed him for being a Dalit and gave him insignificant and dummy portfolios. This whole issue has taken aback the other lawyers and judges. Veteran advocate and member of Rajya Sabha Ram Jethmalani has urged Justice CS Karnan to reconsider his behaviour and withdraw his remarks as soon as possible. He even went on to say that he is ready to personally counsel the judge in this awkward scenario.

Whether Dalits are truly represented in Indian Judiciary itself needs to be looked at closely. As far as statistical data is concerned, in 2002, there was only one judge belonging to scheduled caste in 2002 in Supreme Court and out of 625 judges, 25 judges were from backward caste in High Courts. At present no Dalits serve in the Supreme Court. Is impeachment the only way left at this juncture of time? Let's not forget the fact that impeachment itself is a long drawn process. Side by side, there is no direct reference in constitution as far as 'judicial misbehaviour' is concerned.  As Justice CS Karnan has deliberately used the 'caste' card, tackling this in judicial domain isn't that easy task at all. Thus the thin line of difference between 'measure' and 'impeachment' is indeed of paramount significance. This whole incident has brought back issue of the appointment of judges. In 2015, Supreme Court directly referred the whole idea of appointing judges through National Judicial Appointments Commission as violation of basic constitutional structure. Whether collegium method of appointment is appropriate or not is another discussion and there has been much debate on this in the present Narendra Modi era.