Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: With serious charges slapped against the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, the Supreme Court Collegium has reportedly pulled out the name of Justice PD Dinakaran from the from the list of chief justices it had recommended for elevation to the apex court.
The move came after serious charges of corruption including destroying evidence, threatening government officials surfaced against Dinakaran. He had allegedly encroached approximately 500 acres of public land. In fact, a report of Thiruvallur District Collector also upheld the encroachment charges against him.
In September, the Collegium headed by the CJI had recommended Justice Dinakaran for elevation to the SC.
Earlier this week, Kaveri Rajpuram villagers of Tamil Nadu filed a case against Dinakaran, accusing him of destroying the proof of encroachment of 600 acres of government land.
The complaint was entered in the community service register maintained by the police to record local disputes. It brings parties together for inquiry and possible settlement.
Meanwhile, reacting to the development, senior advocate Prasant Bhusan told a television channel on Sunday, “It is not very clear whether his name is removed from the list (of judges to be elevated to the Supreme Court) or not. However, the question is whether he can remain as the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. With so many charges levelled against him, of which many has been also proved, can he continue now. In fact, the Collegium should have long withdrawn its recommendation.”
Further, Bhusan added that since all charges are criminal offence, he should be prosecuted for criminal offence. “The CJI has been asked for permission to prosecute him,” he informed.
Expressing his surprise on the serious charges, the senior advocate suggested that Dinakaran should be asked to desist from discharging his judicial function or a judicial decision should be made to ask him to desist from judicial function.
“Its a major case which highlights the lack of judicial accountability in the country.. What is going on today is quite informal. We need a proper system for impeachment of judges and judicial investigation,” the advocated suggested.
Along with Dinakaran, the collegium had earlier cleared the names of Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court AK Patnaik, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court TS Thakur, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court SS Nijjar and Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court KS Radhakrishnan for elevation to the apex court.
The collegium, also comprising Justices BN Agarwal, SS Kapadia and Altamas Kabir, had asked the District Collector for his report on the allegations of land grabbing against Dinakaran.
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 el
