Dinakaran issue: SC judge to head panel

Supreme Court judge Justice VS Sirpurkar will head a three-member panel to look into allegations of land grabbing and misconduct against Karnataka Chief Justice PD Dinakaran in the wake of impeachment proceedings initiated against him by opposition MPs, reports Bhadra Sinha.

Supreme Court judge Justice VS Sirpurkar will head a three-member panel to look into allegations of land grabbing and misconduct against Karnataka Chief Justice PD Dinakaran in the wake of impeachment proceedings initiated against him by opposition MPs.

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The other two members of the committee constituted by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari are Andhra Pradesh HC Chief Justice AR Dave and jurist PP Rao, a Rajya Sabha notification said on Saturday.

Constituted under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, the panel will “make an investigation into the grounds on which the removal of Mr Justice Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court is prayed for,” it said.

The committee was set up after 75 MPs sought Justice Dinakaran’s impeachment. Ansari had admitted a notice to initiate impeachment proceedings against Dinakaran for 12 acts of alleged misbehaviour.

Dinakaran has claimed these were “without any substance or without any basis”.

Under the Constitution, judges of SC and HC can be removed only through impeachment in Parliament. A three-member team is already going into the issue of impeachment of Calcutta HC judge Soumitra Sen over alleged judicial misconduct.