Justice Shylendra Kumar, six colleagues mull approaching Chief Justice of India on Dinakaran controversy.
The chief justice PD Dinakaran controversy continued to dog the High Court of Karnataka on Saturday as seven of his brother judges defied him and informally met to discuss the situation arising out of him not discharging his judicial duties.
According to sources, the judges are likely to submit a memorandum to the chief justice of India. KG Balakrishnan, asking him to either transfer chief justice Dinakaran or direct him to go on leave.
Chief justice Dinakaran has been in the eye of a storm after allegations of him having amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income surfaced in the media. While the Union government declined to elevate him, the Supreme Court collegium too withdrew its recommendation that he be made an apex court judge.
Taking exception to the chief justice continuing to discharge administrative duties while keeping away from judicial functions, justice DV Shylendra Kumar had shot off a letter to the high court registrar-general, asking him to convene a full-court meeting of all judges to discuss the issue at 11 am on Saturday in the court conference hall.
But registrar-general RB Budihal said the chief justice had denied permission for holding a full-court meeting and wanted justice Shylendra Kumar to bring the matter to him directly.
On Saturday, justice Shylendra Kumar and six other judges defied the chief justice and met for one-and-a-half hours. The meeting was a closed-door affair and media was not allowed access to the venue.
Besides, Budihal, acting under instructions from the chief justice, also directed the police to disallow mediapersons from entering the high court. Court sources, however, said:
“Justice Shylendra Kumar did hold an informal meeting with some judges in his chamber today. However, most of the judges did not respond to his call for the meeting as the chief justice had already declined permission to hold such a meeting.”
Reacting to the chief justice’s move to disallow them from holding a meeting, justice Shylendra Kumar had said: “This kind of response has confirmed my worst fears that the chief justice may even now continue to abuse and misuse his powers.”
He said the powers included recommending names of persons to be appointed as high court judges after eliciting views of his colleagues in the collegium even when he (justice Dinakaran) was no more discharging his duties as the chief justice.
“In fact, grace and propriety requires that a file containing a proposal of the nature should have been directed to be placed before any other judge of the High Court for orders, if at all an order is needed,” justice Kumar said, adding: “Well, grace, propriety and good conduct are definitely not strong points of our chief justice”.
Reacting to the developments, Advocates’ Association of Bangalore president KN Putte Gowda only said, “We have demanded that the chief justice of India must transfer chief justice Dinakaran. Impeachment proceedings against him are also on. We will wait and meet after the vacation to take a decision on our future course of action.”
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