New Delhi: A Supreme Court collegium on Sunday deferred a decision on elevation of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran after deciding to examine afresh allegations of land grabbing and charges of corruption against the judge.
The collegium move came even as Law Minister Veerappa
Moily asserted that nothing will be done to "tarnish" the
image of judiciary. Justice Dinakaran`s elevation as an apex
court judge is now on hold.
Sources said the collegium headed by Chief Justice of
India K G Balakrishnan and comprising five senior most judges
of the apex court discussed the issue surrounding Justice
Dinakaran on the basis of materials placed before it.
"The collegium is examining whether in the documents
placed before it there is any iota of evidence relating to
corruption charges against Justice Dinakaran," authoritative
sources said, adding that for the time being the collegium has
deferred the decision.
Sources said Dinakaran, who was here for a two-day
national conference, has reitrerated that allegations against
him are not correct.
He had yesterday refused to be drawn into any comment
saying `silence is his only strength`.
Justice Dinakaran was conspicuous by his absence on the
second day of the conference.
Moily avoided giving any direct reply to the question
whether all roads for elevation of Justice Dinakaran has been
closed.
Along with Dinakaran, the collegium had earlier
cleared the names of Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High
Court A K Patnaik, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana
High Court T S Thakur, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High
Court S S Nijjar and Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court K
S Radhakrishnan for elevation to the apex court.
The collegium, then also comprising Justices B N
Agarwal (since retired), S S Kapadia and Altamas Kabir, had
asked the District Collector for his report on the allegations
of land grabbing against Dinakaran.
Justice Tarun Chatterjee is the new member of the
collegium after the retirement of Justice Agrawal.
Earlier, various representations were made by eminent
lawyers, including those from Tamil Nadu, urging the CJI and
the Government to probe the charges and not to elevate the
judge.
Bureau Report
