The future course of action on the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court P.D. Dinakaran is expected once the Tamil Nadu government submits its report with details of his land holdings, as requested by Chief Justice of India K.G Balakrishnan. A Supreme Court collegium including Justices B.N. Agrawal, S.H. Kapadia, Tarun Chatterjee and Altamas Kabir will examine the report.
Asked whether there was any move to put on hold Justice Dinakaran’s elevation to the Supreme Court and to request the Centre to process the other four names, highly placed sources said no such suggestion was made.
To a question whether the Thiruvallur Collector had given a clean chit to Justice Dinakaran, the sources said, “We have not received any report so far.” Asked whether the report would pertain only to his land holdings or include other immovable assets, it was clarified that only details of land holdings were sought. “For the time being, we are not going into other allegations.”
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Lawyers under the auspices of the Forum for Judicial Accountability sent two petitions in September levelling charges of land grabbing and other “irregularities” against Justice Dinakaran.
It was alleged that at Kaverirajapuram in Tiruttani taluk alone “the extent of land possessed by the judge is approximately 500 acres.” It was also alleged that vast extents of government poromboke lands, government anadhinam lands, lakes, canals, streams, village pathways and an ancient mud fortress abutting his patta lands were progressively encroached upon. The villagers were then prevented access to these common resources.
Third petitionADVERTISEMENT
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On Saturday the Forum sent its third petition to the CJI and other judges in the collegium, giving more details of the alleged acquisition of property by Justice Dinakaran in different parts of Tamil Nadu. It is learnt that the representation relates to charges over acquisition of property in Udhagamandalam in violation of building rules and also of three Housing Board plots in Chennai in violation of his own judicial order.
The Forum sought an immediate inquiry and said action for his removal through impeachment should follow.