Bangalore: Terming charges against Karnataka
High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran as "very unfortunate",
a former CJI on Wednesday said the allegations will damage the image
of entire Judiciary but maintained that it was not free from
corruption.
Justice K N Singh said that as a member of judiciary and
former Chief Justice of India, he felt sad to hear the
allegations against Dinakaran.
On the debate on corruption in judiciary in general, he
said. "....Higher judiciary does not suffer with that kind
of corruption which is so prevalent in other departments of
administration".
"There may be one or two incidents here and there but
judiciary is not free from corruption, and one or two
instances would not be sufficient to hold that judiciary is a
corruption institution", said Justice Singh, who is on a
private visit here.
He said he did not know Justice Dinakaran in person nor
did he know details of the allegations. But if media reports
on the allegations are correct, then "it will certainly damage
the constitutional office of Chief Justice as well as it will
damage the image of the entire judiciary in the country," he
said.
"It pains me that a District Collector had conducted an
inquiry (on the land holdings of Justice Dinakaran in
Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu)," he said.
Speaking in general terms, Justice Singh, who retired in
1991, said that sometimes some allegations were made
especially when a judge was very aggressive or not liked by
some members of the Bar or litigant public.
"But the kind of allegations (against Dinakaran) have not
been made (It`s the first time that such allegations were
levelled against Judge). I don`t think it had been made," he
pointed out.
Ever since reports came of Justice Dinakaran being
elevated to the Supreme court, lawyers in Bangalore and
Chennai have come out with allegations that he had grabbed
land in Tamil Nadu in violation of the land ceiling laws.
Bureau Report
