New Delhi:
The Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, PD Dinakaran, is being transferred to the Sikkim High Court. Dinakaran faces impeachment proceedings in the Rajya Sabha for alleged corruption.
President Pratibha Patil has reportedly signed the transfer order.
Last year, charges of corruption emerged when Dinakaran was recommended for promotion to the Supreme Court by its collegium - a group of senior judges. Reports - circulated largely by some of the country's most-respected lawyers - suggested that Dinakaran had illegally acquired hundreds of acres of land for his family in Tamil Nadu.
Dinakaran was dropped from the list of judges being sent to the Supreme Court. The collegiums also asked Dinakaran to go on leave while the corruption charges against him were being investigated. When he defied those orders, the collegium, in April this year, recommended to the government that he be moved to Sikkim. In Karnataka, Dinakaran's presence was causing significant tension with several lawyers refusing to argue their cases in his presence.
No thanks, said Sikkim's lawyers to Dinakaran's suggested transfer, vowing to boycott Dinakaran's oath-taking ceremony if he were forced upon them.
Since then, the transfer order had been pending with the President.