Calcutta High Court’s Justice CS Karnan on Thursday asked Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and the six other Supreme Court judges who had issued a contempt notice against him to appear before his “residential court” on April 28. He claimed that the seven-judge bench had insulted him “wantonly and deliberately and with malafide intentions”, PTI reported.

Karnan is facing contempt charges for degrading the judiciary and making allegations of corruption againt Supreme Court judges. The 61-year-old, who has maintained that the judges have been discriminating against him because he is a Dalit, said he had passed a “suo motu judicial order” from his house in New Town, Kolkata, which he said he had turned into a “makeshift court”.

“...At my Rosedale Residential Court...[they will]...give their views regarding the quantum of punishment for the violation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” he told reporters. In the order, Karnan has alleged that the seven judges had insulted him in open court when they had questioned his mental health during a hearing on March 31.

At the last hearing, the seven-judge Supreme Court bench had rejected Justice Karnan’s demand to be allowed to discharge his judicial duties. The bench had held that the high court judge was not in a clear state of mind and given him four weeks to file a response to his allegations against senior judges. It had issued a bailable warrant against him on March 17.