Dinakaran: Ansari rules out probe panel reconstitution

Even as a section of jurists are demanding the reconstitution of a three-member panel that would probe allegations against controversial Karnataka...

Even as a section of jurists are demanding the reconstitution of a three-member panel that would probe allegations against controversial Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran,Vice-President Hamid Ansari,who in his capacity as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha had constituted the panel,has ruled out any change in the panel.

Sources in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat told The Sunday Express that Ansari on Friday wrote to senior Supreme Court lawyer P P Rao,whose ouster from the panel has been demanded by judicial activists on the ground that he knew Dinakaran,asking him to continue.

Ansaris communication to Rao came a day after the latter wrote to the Vice-President,requesting him to allow him to disassociate from the panel headed by SC Judge V S Sirpurkar in light of allegations against him. However,in his communication to Rao,Ansari is learnt to have rejected his offer to disassociate,saying he had been made aware of all such objections much before he finalised the names for the panel.

Rao,the sources said,had himself informed Ansari about his meeting with Dinakaran,which happened on the latters request. At that meeting,Dinakaran claimed that he was being made a target by vested interests and asked Rao to suggest a proper course of action. Rao is learnt to have told Dinakaran that if he was sure of his innocence,he should himself volunteer to face a formal inquiry under the Commission of Inquiries Act.

Rao,incidentally,is a signatory to the letter that a group of senior Supreme Court lawyers led by Fali Nariman had written to the Chief Justice of India asking him to reconsider the collegiums recommendation to elevate Dinakaran to the Supreme Court.

On Friday,Chennai-based Forum for Judicial Accountability FJA and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform CJAR had written separate letters to Ansari,bringing to his notice the fact that both Sirpurkar and Rao knew Dinakaran and should therefore either recuse themselves or be asked to withdraw from the panel.

The FJA,which led the movement to expose alleged wrongdoings by Dinakaran through a well-documented report,has said the principle of disqualification by association should lead to the automatic exclusion of Sirpurkar and Rao from the inquiry panel.

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Sirpurkar was a Judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court at the same time as Dinakaran and sat on the same Division Bench as Dinakaran and decided many cases together.

The Rajya Sabha Chairman is convinced that there would be no conflict of interest if both Justice Sirpurkar and P P Rao continue to be part of the committee. That is why he has turned down Raos request to disassociate, a source in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.