Charges of land encroachment against Justice P D Dinakaran, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, have been endorsed by an
investigation ordered by the Supreme Court, dealing a serious blow to the prospect of his elevation to the apex court.
Sources said that V Palanikumar, district collector of Thiruvallur near Chennai, found Justice Dinakaran to have encroached 197 acres of public land around his property in Kaverirajapuram village. In his report to the SC, the district collector has also held that the encroachments by Justice Dinakaran have blocked access to government land.
According to sources, the Chief Justice of India, Justice K G Balakrishnan, and other judges who form the Collegium, are considering to withdraw their recommendation for Justice Dinakaran's elevation in the light of the damning findings of the Thiruvallur collector.
"The Collegium always keeps an open mind about its recommendations. It would not be difficult for it to withdraw the earlier recommendation when it meets next time over the reports of the collector and the response from Justice Dinakaran," a highly placed source told TOI.
After the controversy over the recommendation broke out, Justice Dinakaran had in a one-to-one meeting with the CJI on September 18 assured him that he had not acquired even an inch of land after his appointment as a high court judge.
Justice Balakrishnan has asked the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court for his response to the report of Palanikumar.
The CJI has also asked the collector to provide him with maps detailing the alleged encroachment of 197 acres of government land in Kaverirajapuram village, besides directing the revenue secretary of Tamil Nadu to update him about the nature and the period of encroachments.
He had sought the report from the district collector in the wake of massive opposition to the recommendation for Justice Dinakaran's elevation to the SC.
With the collector's damning report on encroachment virtually confirming a part of the allegation levelled by various members of the Bar against Justice Dinakaran, the Collegium would find it extremely difficult to stand by its earlier decision to recommend to the Centre to appoint him as a judge of the Supreme Court.
The Collegium headed by CJI comprises Justices S H Kapadia, Tarun Chatterjee, Altamas Kabir and R V Raveendran.
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Tags : Constitutional Law
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