Dinakaran issue causes musical chairs among HC judges

Bar&Bench News Network

Apr 09, 2010

The latest in the ongoing saga is that the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court has been transferred to the Sikkim High Court.

The Supreme Court collegium had earlier asked the Chief Justice to go on leave while an impeachment motion is being considered against him. But as in the past, Justice Dinakaran remained steadfast in his resolve of not going away quietly and refused to go on leave. Law Minister, Veerappa Moily too had demanded that Justice Dinakaran go on leave and respect the advice of the Supreme Court collegium.

The collegium comprised of Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, Justices S.H. Kapadia, Altamas Kabir, R.V. Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari. Seeing Dinakaran’s defiant attitude, the collegium has decided to transfer him to the North-Eastern court which sees low levels of litigation traffic.

Present Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Madan Lokur will now be appointed as the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court and Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Barin Ghosh who was due to take up his appointment as the Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court will now await a new posting. Sikkim High Court has a sanctioned strength of 3 Judges and according to latest available statistics had 88 cases pending before the High Court bench.

It remains to be seen how the lawyers’ body in the North Eastern state will take the news of Justice Dinakaran’s appointment. Earlier when there was talk of Dinakaran’s posting to the Gauhati High Court, the lawyers’ body of Assam had led some intense agitations against the appointment of the tainted judge.

Finally the Karnataka High Court will have a Chief Justice who will perform both judicial functions and the required administrative functions. However, several questions remain unanswered; whether a tainted judge can be posted to High Courts that have fewer pending cases? What if another High Court judge is found corrupt after Justice Dinakaran is transferred to the Sikkim High Court? Will such a judge be posted to the Sikkim High Court or will he or she be transferred to the Uttaranchal High Court which has the second least statistics of pending cases?

The Supreme Court and the Law Ministry need to set some parameters to decide these questions in light of several scandals hitting the headlines. Few days back, Justice Nirmal Yadav was transferred from the Punjab & Haryana High Court to the Uttaranchal High Court as she was named in the cash-at-judge’s door scandal. Given the trend, the next destination to any tainted Judge may be Jammu & Kashmir as the High Court there is the ranked third least busy High Court in the country.

Comments(9)

1. "Interesting questions. Where are judges of other scandals going to be posted? Are there some case laws on how Judges can be transferred?". Lawyerd, Delhi
2. "These facts call for a deliberation on the following basic questions by the Parliament and the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India:(i) Whether any judge who is charged with judicial impropriety or any other act not befitting of a judge should be transferred to the High Court of a backward/lesser known State? (ii) If a person is not found fit to be a judge in one High Court is he fit to be a judge in the High Court of another State?(iii) Whether the litigant public of Sikkim is not being discriminated against?(iv) Whether it is not fit that a judge facing impeachment be asked to go one leave and not indulge in any judicial or administrative work?(v) If a Justice Dinakaran is fit to assume the office of CJ in Sikkim High Court, is not he fit to continue as the CJ in Karnataka?All these issues are contemplated without presuming the result of the investigation/impeachment motion and in fairness to all concerned.". Guest, India
3. "Well put, I think it is very unfair that the sanctity of judiciary should be allowed to be played around with like this. ". Annapoorna, Bangalore
4. "Shame on the government! What kind of "punishment" is this? And is the respect we have for the North East? No wonder insurgency happens there.If Justice Shamit Mukherjee could be arrested why can't Dinakaran? Is it because Mayawati has said that he is being targeted because he is a dalit? Or perhaps the DMK is sheltering him, as widely reported in the media.". Guest, India
5. "Transfer of Dinkarn to Skikkim is one another mode of postoponing to take action against and this will lead more download image of n judicialy ". Arun, Chikoidi Dist : Belgaum
6. "Important questions arise in this case; If it had been a junior judge of a High Court perhaps the Supreme Court collegium could have asked the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court not to assign him any judicial work but not in this case. I agree with your correspondent(s) that if a person is not found fit to be a judge in one High Court is he fit to be a judge in the High Court of another State? Does having a fewer number of pending cases be deemed to be an invitation for corrupt/tainted judges to be posted in that state? And what if Sikkim having a sanctioned strength of 3 Judges has all three tainted judges, a not so unimaginable scenario? I think a Constitutional amendment is in order to automatically prohibit a Judge from carrying out any judicial/administrative work once a reference of any kind is filed against him.". Naushad Shafkat, Karachi-Pakistan
7. "It is a ridiculous decision of the transper of Judge like Mr.Dinakaran to Sikim court .How can Corrupted judge give justice to other court . I think Lawyers of Sikim High court should protest,of course it is my individual view.". Jibak, Mumbai
8. "There are some judges, who are involved in P.F., scam. They are posting in different state highcourts as a chief justice and even in supreme court also. But dinakaran purchase a land in tamilnadu before he became a judge of highcourt. I think there is corruption. some communist advocate in madras highcourt create this problem with help of supreme court justise who are served as a cj in madras Highcourt. A collector of kachipuram district (tamilnadu) give a report to the supreme court collegium without informed to the state goverment. this is separate issue. but in the dinakaran issue, the judicary lost his confident from the public. citizen of India, laughing and clapping of the all judges who served in all highcourt and supremecourt. It is very very unforutante. ". Sankarkumar, Chennai
9. "I am an advocate of gauhati high court. I have 2 things to say: 1st is, as it is said in the article viz. "Dinakaran issue causes musical chairs among HC judges" it is stated there ".....Seeing Dinakaran’s defiant attitude, the collegium has decided to transfer him to the North-Eastern court which sees low levels of litigation traffic." it is, in my opinion, a very incorrect statement whoever has made it. Gauhati High Court is the largest high court of India interms of territorrial jurisdiction/area. It is just after the SC and it has several thousands of cases awaiting disposal. The division bench of GHC has started hearing of WA of year 2008 just few days ago, not to speak of anyother thing. In this condition one should not pass the said statement without verifying the true state of affairs. The GHC is still in need of at least 20 more judges in its entire bench.2nd is: If a judge is not fit to be eliveted to the SC then how he becomes fit to be a Chief Justice of any other HC. It means d definition of corruption is differnt for SC and HC. No high Court of the Country is a damping ground. ". Ashim Chamuah, Guwahati

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