New Delhi, September 16
Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan and Law Minister M Veerappa Moily have made their intent clear that they would steadfastly adopt a zero tolerance approach in knocking out corruption, be it in judiciary or elsewhere.
Within hours of receiving a complaint against Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran, who has been recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for elevation to the apex court, the CJI summoned him to the national capital and confronted him with the allegations levelled by senior advocates, including Fali S Nariman, Shanti Bhushan and Ram Jethmalani.
At the meeting held at the CJI’s residence, Justice Dinakaran is understood to have rejected the charges of amassing huge assets in Tamil Nadu, where he was a judge earlier, terming these as an attempt at stalling his elevation as a judge of the SC.
Questioning the logic behind levelling such charges at “this juncture,” he is said to have wondered why the Bar in Tamil Nadu was silent on the issue all these years when he was a judge there and later appointed as the Chief Justice of Karnataka.
After all this had happened last week, both the CJI and Moily sent out a strong
signal against corrupt officials while addressing a national seminar held at Vigyan Bhavan here on Saturday and Sunday. The seminar, “Fighting crimes related to corruption” had been organised jointly by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Sciences.
Calling for doing away with the sanction provision for prosecuting corrupt government officials, both issued a somewhat similar and stern message -- the CJI on September 12 and Moily the next day -- on the need for squarely dealing with the menace.
“The prevalence of widespread corruption and ineffective anti-corruption interventions in this country has led to public cynicism. We have chosen the system of democracy in our pursuit of growth and prosperity of our people and the corruption is a major hindrance in our pursuit,” Moily had said.
Earlier, the CJI had quickly recommended the impeachment of Calcutta HC Judge Soumitra Sen for judicial misconduct and allowed investigations into the PF scam allegedly involving judges of the higher judiciary and into the charge of delivery of Rs 15 lakh to a judge of the Punjab and Haryana HC.
However, the stand of the CJI and the government on the latest development involving Justice Dinakaran is expected to crystallise only later this month.
