# Indian Supreme Court sends lower Caste member Judge to jail **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 9, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194 "2017-05-09T12:51:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/1 "2017-05-09T12:51:51Z")
Probably not something that many here would be following, but the S Asian legal community has spent the past few months aghast at the antics of Mr Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan of the High Court of [del]Jackasses[/del] _Judicature_ at Calcutta (think a US Federal Court of Appeal) and and also his superiors in the Indian Supreme Court. Bacially, His Lordship was of the belief that there was more than a smidgen of corruption in the operation of the said High Court and others and complained. So far so good. Unfortunately, he choose to do so in a letter to the Indian PM and named people by names, including one dead guy. He also started passing “orders” against the said Judges, "suspending them from working (no idea what he wanted the dead guy to do). The Indian Supreme Court attempted to restrain him and we were treated to a spectacular and sordid spectacle, whereby the two sides passed orders against each other. Yesterday, Karnan J handed down a “finding” that the CJ of India was in contempt of Court (for not taking the issue seriously enough for Karnan J’s liking). Today, the ISC hit back and found him in contempt and for the first time in recorded history, send a sitting Judge to jail for contempt. Now Karnan is a Dalit, an “untouchable” and PM Modi is an Upper Caste Hindu as are most of the SC Judges. And coincidentally, many of the persons he has accused of corruption are also. [Crazy times](http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/supreme-court-finds-justice-cs-karnan-guilty-of-contempt-hands-him-six-month-jail-term/story-ZXj0kxvLbx4Pn9g1GxgXLL.html). ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/2 "2017-05-09T13:34:11Z")
To whom are you referring as, “His Lordship”? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/3 "2017-05-09T14:22:47Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > To whom are you referring as, “His Lordship”? “Mr Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan of the High Court of Jackasses Judicature at Calcutta” Or am I missing a nuance or snark or something? I assume that’s the formal way of addressing members of the judiciary in that part of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/4 "2017-05-09T16:50:57Z")
Institutional racism, once firmly in place as caste or slavery for example, is never entirely rooted out of a society. If you want it gone for good you have to remove the society in which it thrived and no one’s willing to do that. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/5 "2017-05-09T18:06:02Z")
Sorry, I see now. He first referred to him as ‘Mr Justice…’, then switched to, ‘his Lordship’, in the same sentence, it was a titch confusing, to me is all. I wasn’t sure it didn’t refer to those who charged to censor him. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/6 "2017-05-09T19:37:44Z")
Is the OP suggesting that Karnan was justified in his initial charges of corruption among his colleagues? And that Karnan was smacked down solely because he (Karnan) is a Dalit and the other judges are higher caste? That does sound bad, but it’s kind of hard to follow, without even knowing what was the basis of Karnan’s original complaint. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/7 "2017-05-09T20:11:05Z")
Yep, sounds more like “pissing matchism” than racism. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indian-supreme-court-sends-lower-caste-member-judge-to-jail/786194/8 "2017-05-09T22:59:27Z")
The BBC article I read the other day made him sound a bit loopy and less like a martyr, for what it’s worth.