New Delhi:
Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran's appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court has hit a roadblock with a Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan understood to have put on hold the decision on his elevation.
The apex court Collegium, which met in New Delhi on Saturday, is believed to have sought within a week his response to the allegations that he had amassed land in Tamil Nadu's Piruvallur district, reliable sources said.
The collegium's decision came after it considered a report of the District Collector of Piruvallur, which is believed to have pointed out that at Kaverirajapuram in Tiruttani taluk alone, the extent of land allegedly possessed by the judge was approximately 500 acres, they said.
The sources said the decision of the collegium would be communicated to the Ministry of Law, where the file relating to the elevation of Justice Dinakaran along with four High Court judges is pending.
After the government receives the communication on the Dinakaran issue from the collegium, they said it could put in abeyance his elevation and proceed with the appointment of other four judges to the Supreme Court whose names have been cleared by the collegium.
Along with that of Justice Dinakaran, the collegium had cleared the names of Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court A K Patnaik, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court T S Thakur, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court S S Nijjar and Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court K S Radhakrishnan for elevation to the apex court.