The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed yet another plea by Justice P.D. Dinakaran challenging the order of the three-member panel allowing the Chennai-based Forum for Judicial Accountability to assist it in its probe into the proceedings for his removal.
The committee, appointed by the Raja Sabah Chairman, is going into charges of land-grab, encroachment on government land, etc, levelled against Justice Dinakaran when he was Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. He was later shifted to the Sikkim High Court.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad dismissed the writ petition filed by Justice Dinakaran and said it would give detailed reasons later. The Bench had already dismissed his writ petition, challenging the proceedings, though it accepted his contention that there was a likelihood of bias in the proceedings if senior advocate P.P. Rao continued to function on the committee headed by Supreme Court judge Aftab Alam. Accordingly, Mr. Rao has been replaced by Prof. Mohan Gopal. Senior counsel Amarendra Saran, appearing for Justice Dinakaran, argued that in the removal proceedings no third party could be permitted to render any assistance as doing so would vitiate the proceedings. When an objection was raised before the committee, the petitioner was told that the panel could regulate its own procedure, said Mr. Saran.
Counsel for the panel had stated that since the Forum was the initial complainant it was only rendering assistance and this argument was accepted by the committee, Mr. Saran said. However, he, quoting earlier judgments, said such a procedure was wrong and sought quashing of the order.
