President Pratibha Patil has transferred Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court P.D. Dinakaran as Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court, even as proceedings for his removal as a judge is pending before a parliamentary panel headed by Justice V.S. Sirpurkar.
Justice Dinakaran, who has not been performing judicial work in the Karnataka High Court for the last eight months following allegations of land grabbing and other charges, will perform judicial functions in the Sikkim High Court.
The President has also ordered the shifting of Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court J.S. Khehar as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court Barin Ghosh has been transferred as Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court.
The Supreme Court collegium, headed by the former Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, proposed these transfers in April and sent the recommendations to the government. The delay in effecting the transfers was due to a question raised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the desirability of shifting Chief Justices within few months of their taking charge. The Law Ministry returned the file to the collegium for consideration afresh.
As a result, the collegium, headed by the new Chief Justice of India, S.H. Kapadia, met and reconsidered the whole issue and stuck to the earlier decision to shift the three Chief Justices. The collegium declined the government's request to reconsider the recommendations made on April 8, except in the case of the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Kurian Joseph, who was retained in the same High Court.
