Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari on Thursday admitted a motion seeking the removal of P.D. Dinakaran as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court for alleged acts of "misbehaviour" including corruption, land grabbing and abuse of judicial office.
According to sources, the Chairman will now appoint a committee comprising a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of a High Court and an eminent jurist under Sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 to go into the charges.
The motion under Article 217 read with Article 124(4) of the Constitution was presented on Monday to Mr. Ansari by Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley and S.S. Ahluwalia (the BJP), Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat (CPI-M), Ramgopal and Amar Singh (Samajwadi Party), K. Malaichamy (AIADMK), Sivanand Tiwari (Janata Dal-United) and other members totalling 75.
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The charges are: (i) possessing wealth disproportionate to the known sources of his income, (ii) unlawfully securing five Housing Board plots in favour of his wife and two daughters, (iii) entering into transactions prohibited and punishable under the Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 1988, (iv) acquiring and possessing agricultural holdings beyond the ceiling limit under the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Act, 1961, (v) illegal encroachment on government and public property to deprive Dalits and the poor of their right to livelihood, (vi) violation of the human rights of Dalits and the poor, (vii) destruction of evidence during official enquiry, (viii) obstructing public servant on duty, (ix) repeated undervaluation of properties at the time of registration of sale to evade stamp duty, (x) carrying out illegal construction in breach of the Town Planning Law and Planning permit, (xi) misuse of official position to unlawfully secure property and to facilitate other illegal acts for personal gain.
The notice also charges Justice Dinakaran with passing "dishonest judicial orders to favour a few individuals or for his own unjust enrichment at the cost of the exchequer."
He has also been accused of "taking irregular and dishonest administrative actions to facilitate dishonest judicial decision and to make arbitrary and illegal appointment and transfers."
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The last such an inquiry was conducted in March 2009 for removal of Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court.