Calcutta High Court’s Justice C.S. Karnan — whose refusal to turn up before the Supreme Court to face contempt proceedings had led the top court to issue a bailable warrant against him — appeared before the top court’s seven-judge bench this morning.

The 61-year-old controversial judge argued his case before the bench headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar. He was as defiant as ever.

When the seven-judge bench — which had stripped him of his administrative and judicial work in February — declined to accept his plea to restore his work, he dared them to “send me to jail” in the contempt case. “Restore my work or next time, I will not appear before your court,” the judge said, adding, “I am not a terrorist or anti-social person”.