New Delhi, April 3
Karnataka High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran, who is facing impeachment in Rajya Sabha for alleged land encroachment and corruption, has been asked to go on leave.

The decision to ask the beleaguered CJ to proceed on leave was taken by the Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan following a spate of complaints that the functioning of the HC had been hit since December last year when the CJ was forced to stay away from judicial work and handle only the administrative job.

The five-member Collegium, which includes four senior-most Judges of the apex court, has also recommended the appointment of Delhi HC Acting CJ Madan B Lokur in place of CJ Dinakaran, who would be 60 on May 9. HC CJs and Judges retire at the age of 62, while those in SC could continue till 65.

In other recommendations, the Collegium has suggested the appointment of Justice MY Eqbal, the senior-most in the Jharkhand HC, as the CJ of Madras HC to succeed Justice HL Gokhale, who is likely to be elevated to the SC.

The Collegium had recommended CJ Dinakaran’s elevation to the SC in August last year but subsequently retracted the proposal and decided to put his case “on hold” for an indefinite period following the impeachment move initiated at the instance of the Chennai-based Forum for Judicial Accountability.

The latest move for the appointment of Justice Lokur was also prompted by the fact that the three-member committee, headed by SC Judge VS Sirpurkar, was likely to take about a year to complete its probe, official sources said. Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari appointed the committee after accepting the notice for impeachment submitted by 76 MPs from opposition parties.

Allowing Justice Dinakaran to continue as the head of the Karnataka HC would impede the court’s functioning, adversely affecting justice delivery and thereby the litigants, who were already groaning under heavy delays arising from huge arrears of cases, the sources said. Significantly, the Collegium did not go for the option of shifting him to another High Court.