C. S. Karnan

C. S. Karnan was born Karunanithi Swaminathan on 12 June 1955 in Karnatham, a village in Cuddalore district of what was then Madras State and is now Tamil Nadu. He came from a Dalit family and was the second of eight children of Chinnaswamy Swaminathan, a school teacher and headmaster who received the President's Best Teacher Award, and Kamalam, a homemaker.

He attended the Adi Dravidar school in Karnatham and a government school in Mangalampet, completed his pre-university course at Government Arts College, Vriddhachalam, and graduated in botany from The New College, Chennai. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws from Madras Law College in 1983.

After enrolling with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, Karnan practised civil law. He served as legal adviser to the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewage Board, as government advocate in civil suits and as standing counsel for the union government.

In 2009, on the recommendation of Chief Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly of the Madras High Court, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan approved his appointment. He became an additional judge of the Madras High Court in March 2009 and a permanent judge in March 2011.

In November 2011 he wrote to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes alleging caste-based harassment by fellow judges, and he later raised similar allegations against Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and questioned the selection of judges. In 2014 he entered a courtroom during proceedings to object to names proposed for elevation. In February 2016 the Supreme Court transferred him to the Calcutta High Court, a move he initially purported to stay.

On 23 January 2017 he published an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi naming 20 sitting and retired judges he accused of corruption. The Supreme Court began suo motu contempt proceedings. During them he purported to pass orders against Supreme Court judges, and on 8 May 2017 he purported to sentence Chief Justice J. S. Khehar and seven other judges to five years' rigorous imprisonment. On 9 May 2017 a seven-judge bench led by Khehar held him guilty of contempt and sentenced him to six months' imprisonment, the first such sentence for a sitting High Court judge. He retired on 12 June 2017, was arrested in Coimbatore by Kolkata Police on 21 June and was released from Presidency jail in Kolkata on 20 December 2017.

Karnan was married to Saraswathi, at whose request he changed his first name from Karunanithi to Karnan in 1991. The couple had two children. In his later years he lived in Chennai.

After his release from prison he stayed in public life. In May 2018 he launched a political party and announced plans to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In December 2020 he was arrested by Chennai Police over videos containing derogatory remarks about judges and women judicial officers, and was granted conditional bail in March 2021.

C. S. Karnan died on the morning of Friday 13 November 2026 in Chennai, at the age of 71. According to reports he had recently been admitted to a hospital following health complications and did not respond to treatment. No specific cause of death was made public. His death was reported by The Hindu, Hindu Tamil Thisai, Bar and Bench and Malayala Manorama.

Karnan's case remains a landmark in Indian constitutional and legal history as the first time a sitting High Court judge was sentenced to imprisonment for contempt of court. Supporters saw him as a judge who spoke out about caste discrimination within the judiciary, while the Supreme Court and many of his colleagues regarded his conduct as an attack on the institution. His case is frequently cited in debates about judicial appointments, accountability and the limits of contempt powers in India.