The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the framing of fourteen charges of alleged corruption and misconduct against Sikkim high court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran by a three-member inquiry committee in the impeachment proceedings but allowed his plea for removal of senior advocate P.P. Rao form the probe panel after the allegation of “bias”.
However, the apex court said that Justice Dinakaran raised the allegation of “bias” against senior advocate Rao as a “calculated move” of delaying tactic and thwart submission of the inquiry report to the Rajya Sabha Chairman within three months as stipulated under the law.
Since the question of bias was raised, a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad thought it proper to allow the “recusal” of Mr Rao from the probe panel, to ensure that the inquiry was completed as early as possible. In fact, Mr Rao had offered to recuse himself from the probe after Justice Dinakaran raised allegations of bias against him.
“We hold that belated raising of the objection against inclusion of P.P. Rao in the committee... appears to be a calculated move on the part of petitioner (Dinakaran). He is an intelligent person and knows that in terms of the Judges Inquiry Rules, the presiding officer of the committee is required to forward the report to the (Rajya Sabha) Chairman within three months from the charges were served on him,” the bench said.
“Therefore, he wants to adopt possible tactic to delay the submission of report which may in all probability compel the committee to make a request to the (Rajya Sabha) Chairman to extend the time in terms of the rules. No court renders assistance to the petitioner in a petition filed with the sole object of delaying finalisation of the inquiry,” the bench in its order verdict recorded, clarifying that recusal of Rao was only allowed to ensure that the impeachment proceedings were not “hampered” due to the raising of this issue.
To ensure early completion of the inquiry, the top court requested Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, to appoint another jurist in place of Rao as early as possible.
On the question of framing of 14 charges against Justice Dinakaran, the apex court said the impeachment proceedings against him had only progressed to the stage of “framing of charges” and the committee was yet to record its “findings” on the same and submit a report to the Rajya Sabha Chairman.
In such a situation, the nomination of another jurists to the committee would not “hamper” the proceedings against Justice Dinakaran and the reconstituted panel “shall be entitled to proceed on the charges already framed,” the apex court said approving the framing of 14 charges while dismissing Dinakaran’s petition on that count.