SC Collegium to decide Dinakaran's fate by Tuesday

The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, will within a couple of days decide the fate of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran, whose proposed elevation as a judge of the apex court has been rejected by the government.

Justice Dinakaran met the CJI and some judges of the Collegium on Friday night and is understood to have claimed that reports of the Collector of Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu relating to alleged land grabbing by him were not correct.

Highly-placed sources told PTI today that the Collegium will take a decision "by Monday or Tuesday" whether to reconsider Justice Dinakaran's name or drop him from the list of judges for elevation to the apex court.

Ending weeks of uncertainty, Government had last week rejected the Collegium's move to elevate Justice Dinakaran in the wake of allegations of land-grabbing against him and his family.

Sources in the Law Ministry said that the file recommending the elevation has been returned to the CJI with a request to the Collegium to reconsider its decision.Justice Balakrishnan had written to the Law Ministry seeking delinking of the name of Justice Dinakaran from a list of High Court Chief Justices, recommended for elevation to the Supreme Court.

The sources claim that the Law Ministry's decision to return the file came after it found that various probes, including those conducted by the Intelligence Bureau and District Collector of Tiruvallur, were enough to deny Justice Dinakaran elevation to the highest court.

Government felt that there was no need for any more probe into the issue as requested by the Chief Justice.A report by Survey of India is yet to be forwarded to the SC Collegium, the sources said.

Justice Dinakaran is facing allegations of land grabbing in Kaverirajapuram in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, a charged denied by him.It is learnt that the Prime Minister's Office had also referred to the Law Ministry the media campaign on the issue

The Law Ministry sent its report to the Prime Minister, who is understood to have agreed with its perception and wanted the Collegium to reconsider its recommendation.
In August this year, the Collegium had recommended the name of Justice Dinakaran along with Chief Justices of four other High Courts. While Justice Dinakaran's name was kept on hold, the four others were elevated to the Supreme Court recently.