CHENNAI: He was the only sitting judge in the history of Indian judiciary to be sentenced to prison. He was also the only High Court judge who summoned a Chief Justice of India. Justice CS Karnan, whose judicial career was both riveting and notorious, passed away at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai on Friday. He was 71.

Born in 1955 in Karnatham village in Cuddalore district as the second of the eight children of Swaminathan and Kamalam, Karnan graduated from Madras Law College in 1983 and began practising as a lawyer. At the request of his wife, Saraswathi, he changed his birth name from Karunanidhi to Karnan in 1991.

He was appointed as additional judge of the Madras High Court in March 2009; he subsequently became a permanent judge. In March 2016, he was transferred to the Calcutta High Court. In 2017, while serving at the Calcutta High Court, Justice Karnan issued an order sentencing then CJI Jagdish Singh Khehar and seven other Supreme Court judges to five years of rigorous imprisonment after invoking provision under the SC/ST Act. A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court found him guilty of criminal contempt the very next day, on May 9, and sentenced him to six months in prison.

Justice Karnan thus became the first sitting judge to be sentenced to prison. The contempt proceedings followed a series of corruption allegations he levelled against fellow judges of the Supreme Court and various high courts. He also repeatedly refused to appear before the apex court despite multiple summons. The Supreme Court held that his conduct undermined the authority of the judiciary and obstructed the administration of justice.

Justice Karnan retired on June 21 after serving in the two high courts for over eight years. A week later he was arrested from Coimbatore. He was released in December that year after a six-month prison sentence in Presidency jail, Kolkata.

Justice Karnan had made Chennai his home since retiring and had been undergoing treatment for health complications.