Dinakarans plea against Rao will jeopardise probe: RS panel

The Rajya Sabha-appointed committee inquiring into corruption and land grab charges against the Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court,Justice P D Dinakaran,on Thursday said his apprehension of bias against panel member and senior advocate P P Rao is merely a ruse to seriously jeopardise the report to be filed in Parliament on June 24.

Justice Dinakaran,who is facing 14 different charges,ranging from corruption to encroachment into public land during his tenure as the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court,had approached the Supreme Court against an April 24 decision of the committee to continue with Rao. He had sought his recusal,claiming that Rao would be biased against him as the latter had been an active part of a campaign to stop his elevation to the Supreme Court in 2009.

Senior advocate U U Lalit submitted before a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly that before deciding on Rao,the court should apply its mind on whether Justice Dinakaran’s apprehension was a fanciful one or not.