Dinakaran issue: CJI takes services of expert body

Survey of India to examine veracity of allegations

The decision has been taken to employ Department of Survey of India (under the Ministry of Science and Technology) to examine the veracity of the report of Tiruvallur district collector which has gone against Dinakaran, highly placed sources said. The development came after Dinakaran had met the CJI on October 25 when he was here to attend the conference of chief justices and denied all allegations.

Sources said the Surveyor-General’s office has been specifically asked to conduct a survey in view of the report of the district collector which said Dinakaran had encroached public land using barbed wire.
The Chief Justice of India has also sought a response of the Tamil Nadu government on the report of the district collector.
The CJI on Sunday said the Centre has been asked to process only the names of four other judges cleared for promotion except Justice Dinakaran as the inquiry into allegations against him was not over.

Sources said: “It is still being looked whether there is an iota of evidence of corruption against Dinakaran based on the documents supplied to the collegium.” The five-judge collegium headed by the chief justice of India had earlier cleared along with that of Justice Dinakaran the names of A K Patnaik, T S Thakur, S S Nijjar and K S Radhakrishnan, Chief Justices of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Calcutta High Court and Gujarat High Court respectively.

The move to put on hold Justice Dinakaran’s elevation comes amid allegations that the judge has amassed land in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district. The collegium, which also comprised Justices B N Agarwal (since retired), S S Kapadia and Altamas Kabir, had asked the district collector for his report on the allegations against Dinakaran. Justice Tarun Chatterjee has joined the collegium after the retirement of Justice Agrawal last month.
Earlier, various representations were made by eminent lawyers urging the CJI and the government to probe the charges against Justice Dinakaran and not to elevate the judge.