BAI requests SC to stop Dinakaran’s elevation

New Delhi, Nov. 28: Any further move to elevate the controversial Karnataka High Court Chief Justice, P.D. Dinakaran, to the Supreme Court pending inquiry against him, was on Saturday strongly opposed by the Bar Association of India (BAI), a body having mostly senior advocates as its members.

The BAI, headed by the constitutional expert and country’s top lawyer, Fali S. Nariman, in a resolution passed here with an aim to save the credibility of judiciary, urged the five judges’ Collegium of the Supreme Court not to reconsider Justice Dinakaran’s name because his “integrity was widely perceived to be doubtful.”

The Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI), K.G. Balakrishnan, had recently withheld Justice Dinakaran’s name for elevation to the SC after land grabbing allegations were made against him by a lawyers’ body in Tamil Nadu.

The BAI said in order to “save the credibility of the judiciary” it would be prudent on the part of the Collegium to desist from appointing Justice Dinakaran as an SC judge.

It was immaterial whether the charges against him were correct or not, but the question was whether the appointment of a persons whose integrity was “widely perceived to be doubtful” would affect the faith of common man in our judicial institutions, the BAI said.

“The BAI most fervently and seriously appeals to the Collegium not to proceed further with his recommendation for the appointment to the apex court and save the credibility of judiciary in the eyes of the people,” the resolution passed in a meeting of the BAI said while asking the CJI to put an end to the controversy.

The resolution assumes significance as the CJI had reportedly only withheld the name of Justice Dinakaran approved in an earlier recommendation by the collegium pending inquiry against him, which is yet to be completed.

The BAI said the “cardinal” features of transparency and accountability in the matter of judges’ appointment has to be maintained at all costs.