Despite opposition, Dinakaran panel meets

A three-member probe panel set-up by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari is learnt to have “informally” met for the first time on Sunday to work out the procedure to investigate the allegations of corruption and land grabbing against the Karnataka high court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran.

A three-member probe panel set-up by Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari is learnt to have “informally” met for the first time on Sunday to work out the procedure to investigate the allegations of corruption and land grabbing against the Karnataka high court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran.

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The panel headed by Supreme Court judge, Justice V S Sirpurkar, with Bombay high court Chief Justice A R Dave and lawyer P P Rao as its members, met despite an application by 10 top Chennai-based lawyers, seeking reconstitution of the panel.

Ansari is yet to take a decision on the application filed by Forum for Judicial Accountability (FJA), in which it has asked Justice Sirpurkar and Rao to opt out of the panel, since they had expressed views “showing a pro-Dinakaran tilt”, sources said.

“We have not received any information on the fate of our application and also on our plea of being allowed to participate in the proceedings, which we have asked for since it was our petition that formed the basis of an impeachment motion against Justice Dinakaran,” said the forum convenor, R Vaigai. Rajya Sabha sources indicated that Ansari was unlikely to take any decision on the FJA applications and would refer them to the probe panel.

“In view of the chairman, once a probe committee has been set-up, he should not interfere at all,” sources said. The first meeting of the panel would not be considered a part of the proceedings, since it took place at the residence of Justice Sirpurkar “without a pre-decided agenda,” the sources said.