Dinakaran fate in govt court

SC collegium avoids arriving at a decision

The collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice K G Balakrishnan, which met in the capital on Friday to review its recent recommendation in the light of the serious allegations of owning disproportionate assets against CJ Dinakaran, ended up not taking any decision.

 “The matter was discussed, but no decision was taken,” stated a message sent out to the media by the CJI through his staff following the collegium’s late evening meeting.

 Besides the CJI, the collegium has four senior-most judges - Justices B N Agrawal, S  H  Kapadia, Tarun Chatterjee and Altmas Kabir.

While the message was brief, official sources explained that the collegium would not wait for the government’s action on its last month’s recommendation to elevate CJ Dinakaran to the apex court, notwithstanding the subsequent controversy involving him.  There were expectations from the collegium’s meeting since the CJI had summoned CJ Dinakaran here last Saturday to take his version on the allegations of holding disproportionately large tracts of land in Tamil Nadu in his and his relatives’ names.

The allegations had gained credence as the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court bar associations had raised questions about not only CJ Dinakaran’s proposed elevation but also his very continuance as a judge.

Indeed, prominent lawyers have made written representations to the President, CJI and the Prime Minister raising questions about the proposed elevation for the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice as also his integrity and judicial conduct. 

The sources said there was no provision for the collegium to withdraw its recommendation. Hence, its decision to wait for the government’s response.

However, there are past instances of the President sending back the recommendation to the collegium for reconsideration. The names of Justice Jagdish Bhalla, presently the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, Justice Vijender Jain, former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justices H L Dattu, R M Lodha and A K Ganguly were sent back to the Supreme Court collegium for reconsideration.

But the collegium had reiterated its recommendations to the President appointment following which the government accepted the reiterated recommendations and made the appointments.