New Delhi : Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran's appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court has hit a roadblock with a collegium headed by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan understood to have put on hold the decision on his elevation.
The apex court collegium, which met here yesterday, is believed to have sought within a week his response to the allegations that he had amassed land in Tamil Nadu's Piruvallur district, reliable sources said.
The collegium's decision came after it considered a report of the District Collector of Piruvallur which is believed to have pointed out that at Kaverirajapuram in Tiruttani taluk alone, the extent of land allegedly possessed by the judge was approximately 500 acres, they said.
The sources said the decision of the collegium will be communicated to the Ministry of Law, where the file relating to the elevation of Justice Dinakaran along with four High Court judges is pending.
After the government receives the communication on the Dinakaran issue from the collegium, they said it could put in abeyance his elevation and proceed with the appointment of other four judges to the Supreme Court whose names have been cleared by the collegium.
Along with that of Justice Dinakaran, the collegium had cleared the names of Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court A K Patnaik, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court T S Thakur, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court S S Nijjar and Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court K S Radhakrishnan for elevation to the apex court.
The collegium, also comprising Justices B N Agarwal, S S Kapadia and Altamas Kabir, had asked the District Collector for his report following an allegation that Justice Dinakaran possessed around 500 acres of land in Tiruttani taluk. There were also other allegations of amassing of wealth by Justice Dinakaran, the sources said.
Earlier, various representations were made by eminent lawyers, including those from Tamil Nadu, making accusations of land grabbing against Justice Dinakaran to the CJI.
