NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented move the Supreme Court sentenced Justice CS Karnan to six months in jail and also issued orders banning the media from reporting his statements and ‘orders’.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained the print and electronic media from carrying statements by Calcutta High Court judge Justice CS Karnan after he was found guilty of contempt for levelling corruption charges against apex court judges, including the Chief Justice.

The apex court ordered the Kolkata police to arrest him. This is the first ever jail sentence for a judge in India.

"He has to be seen as a citizen of India and not as a judge. There is no colour or no judge , we can't distinguish the contempt , and not decide just on the fact that he is a sitting judge that we can't take action against him,"Chief Justice of India, JS Khehar, said.

Yesterday, the judge who had also been asked to get his mental health examined by the court recently, had "sentenced" the Chief Justice and seven judges of the Supreme Court to five years in jail. He awarded five-year “rigorous imprisonment” to eight Supreme Court judges and imposed a fine of Rs 100,000 on each of them under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 and the amended Act of 2015.

Only last week he had turned away a team of psychiatrists who had arrived along with the police for a medical examination ordered by the apex court.

Justice Karnan came into the spotlights earlier this year when he was accused of contempt for naming 20 "corrupt judges" of the country . He wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging an inquiry. As the Supreme Court transferred him from the Madras High Court to Kolkata, Justice Karnan said he was being victimised because he is a Dalit.

He remained defiant, and refused to comply with the orders of the apex court. Instead he started matching whatever the Supreme Court said with his own “orders” in what has been clearly seen as contempt.