Supreme Court collegium drops recommendation to elevate Dinakaran

The Supreme Court collegium has decided to drop its recommendation for elevating Karnataka chief justice PD Dinakaran, facing charges of land grabbing, to the apex court, bringing to end months of controversy over the move.

A decision has been taken, highly placed sources said. The collegium led by chief justice KG Balakrishnan and including justice SH Kapadia, Tarun Chatterjee, Altamas Kabir and RV Raveendran met last evening and decided to take back the recommendation for his elevation.

Earlier, the law ministry had rejected the August 27 recommendation of the collegium and asked it to reconsider the decision. Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari had yesterday admitted a notice of the motion by MPs to start impeachment proceedings against Dinakaran over land-grabbing allegations.

The Chairman is expected to constitute a three-member committee comprising a Supreme Court judge, a high court chief justice and a jurist  to examine the notice and give its views before the impeachment process is carried forward.

Dinakaran, who has kept away from judicial work, has ruled out his resignation and termed as "unfortunate" the impeachment motion tabled against him in Rajya Sabha.