Dinakaran should stay away from court: Sorabjee

Eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee on Wednesday said P D Dinakaran,the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice who ahead of a proposed elevation to the Supreme Court is in the eye of a controversy over acquisition of disproportionate wealth,should not be attending court under the present circumstances.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Nani Palkhivala memorial lecture at the National Law School of India University here,the former advocate general of India said Justice Dinakaran should desist from attending court as the allegations against him had resulted in the Chief Justice of India ordering an inquiry. “This is not a case of the bar association or the media saying something. A case was made to the Chief Justice of India who was convinced and ordered an inquiry. It is in the fitness of things that till the time he is cleared of the allegations,he should not take up judicial work,” he said.

When a litigant has doubts about a presiding officer it is difficult for him to believe he will get justice,the eminent jurist said. “The real strength of the judiciary is public confidence. If public confidence is diluted and shattered,the institution’s credibility is affected,” he added.

Sorabjee said when a similar situation arose in the early 1990s in the case of Justice V Ramaswami,then Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court,then Chief Justice of India Justice Sabyasachi Mukherjee asked him not to take up cases. “The situation should not go that far in this situation,” he added.