Fresh charges against Justice Dinakaran

Lawyers claim judges family violated TNHB norms

"Violating the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) rules pertaining to the allotment of ‘one house per family’, it has now come to light that Justice Dinakaran’s family has bought five houses near Chennai allotted by the TNHB under the “higher income group” category,” ten lawyers of the forum have specified in their latest letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) K G Balakrishnan.

The houses were purchased during 2005, notwithstanding the judge’s claim that he had acquired no property after becoming an HC judge. The signatories to the letter include the Chennai-based lawyers, Messrs R Vaigai, Shriram Panchu, Anna Mathew and Sudha Ramalingam. Their letter was published on Tuesday by the CPM’s official organ in Tamil, ‘Theekathir’.

The houses were in the names of Dinakaran’s wife Vinodhini and daughters. Vinodini  had purchased two TNHB houses at Neelangarai, an area with potential for commercial real estate development, each for Rs 13,67,267, the forum charged. In July this year, 4.50 acres of land near the prestigious ‘Golf Links’ area in Ooty, was purchased in the name of Dinakaran’s mother-in-law Paripooranam, 80, the forum said.

Holding that the land was undervalued at about Rs 33.75 lakh, the lawyers said according to the current “guideline value” of land fixed by the Tamil Nadu Government for that place, the lands purchased would be worth about Rs 3 crore. The undervaluation was allegedly done by classifying it as “agriculture land”, they said.

Further, as a pensioner, Paripooranam could not be expected to possess too much cash, the lawyers said.

The “demand drafts” for purchasing the said land were obtained from a Bank of Baroda branch in Bangalore, the lawyers said, adding it could not be dismissed as mere coincidence.