SC Bar Association for Justice P D Dinakaran to resign

The exclusion of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran while four other Judges were elevated was followed by a call for his resignation. 



The call came from Supreme Court Bar Association president M N Krishnamani who also urged the Apex Court Collegium to drop the Judge name from consideration.



‘Justice Dinakaran should in all fairness resign,’ Krishnamani said in a telephone interview repeating earlier stand against such a Judge continuing as Chief Justice.



The Apex Bar spokesman had made his point in a petition to Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily released to media exactly two months ago. 



‘If a judge, because of his doubtful integrity... cannot be elevated to the Supreme Court, certainly he has no right to continue as CJ of the High Court as well,’ he said. 



‘His continuance as a judge may also have to be objected to, apart from not elevating him to the Apex Court. The position of a Chief Justice of the High Court is more pivotal than that of a puisne judge of the Supreme Court. 



Justice Dinakaran was among five senior Judges tipped to be elevated to India Apex Court until allegations surfaced about his having encroached huge parcels of public land.



The other four High Court Chief Justices were Ananga Kumar Patnaik of Madhya Pradesh, Tirath Singh Thakur of Punjab and Haryana, Kalavamkodath Sivasankara Panicker Radhakrishnan of Gujarat and Surinder Singh Nijjar of Calcutta. 



The recommendation came in September but was mired in controversy over Justice Dinakaran alleged involvement in land-grabbing.



Thiruvallur district collector V Palanikumar has reported that Justice Dinakaran encroached 197 acres of public land around his property in Kaverirajapuram village in Chennai, published accounts say. 



Summoned by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan in September, Justice Dinakaran reportedly assured the CJI he had not acquired any land after his appointment as a High Court Judge.



Critics say the reported assurance and the implicit suggestion that any land-grabbing may have preceded the appointment is a reflection of the appointment system. 



The delay in dealing with the issue held up the other four appointments, which finally went through . 



Until they were sworn in, the 31-member apex court had nine vacancies. 



Reached on his cell this evening for comment, Krishnamani said it was time the Collegium dropped the Judge from its consideration instead of waiting for more evidence. 



‘The collector second report, which confirms wrongdoing, is already with the Collegium. There is no point in waiting for more. A mere suspicion about someone integrity is ground enough for the Collegium to act in such matter.’ The Collegium led by the CJI includes Justices S H Kapadia, Tarun Chatterjee, Altamas Kabir and R V Raveendran.