Dinakaran trouble in RS

Trouble is brewing between Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari and the opposition parties on the issue of a panel to probe the corruption allegations against Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran.

Trouble is brewing between Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari and the opposition parties on the issue of a panel to probe the corruption allegations against Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran.

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Opposition is unhappy over the chairman’s “hasty” move to “ignore the objections raised by jurists” on the three-member panel. Top jurists had last week demanded that the panel be scrapped since two of the members, Justice VS Sirpurkar of the Supreme Court and senior advocate PP Rao, knew Justice Dinakaran “quite well and may not be fit to judge his conduct”.

The BJP and Left MPs are expected to take up the matter with Ansari. The chairman is understood to have declined Rao’s request to opt out as he had discussed the issue with Justice Dinakaran.

Rao did not deny having met Justice Dinakaran in December and having asked him to “ask for a probe under the Commission of Inquiry Act”.

Asked whether he would remain on the panel, Rao said: “This question should be put to the Rajya Sabha chairman.”

Justice Sirpurkar-led panel was set up on January 8.

The BJP’s deputy leader in the House, SS Ahluwalia, said the jurists seemed to have raised valid points. Ansari’s decision to ignore their objections was hasty, said an opposition leader. “We would be failing in our constitutional duty, in case we keep quiet...,” the leader said.

Senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury is learnt to be in touch with other leaders, including leader of the opposition Arun Jaitley. “We’ll reveal the strategy at the appropriate time,” Yechury told HT.

Rajya Sabha secretariat refused comment.