The appointment of Chief Judges of different High Courts of India and Judges of the Supreme Court is made by the President of India (read Home Ministry) on the recommendation of a collegium of judges headed by the Chief Justice of India.
   In August 2009, the collegium comprising K.G. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of India, Justice B.N. Agrawal, Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice Altamas Kabir, recommended the names of Justice P.D. Dinakaran,
Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court and four other Chief Justices for elevation to the Supreme Court of India.

On September 9, senior lawyers Fali Nariman and Shanti Bhushan, met the Chief Justice of India and submitted a detailed letter of complaint from several Chennai lawyers under the name of the Forum for Judicial Accountability.
The complaint levelled serious allegations of land grabbing in Kaverirajapuram in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu and other “irregularities” against Justice Dinakaran.

The lawyers also wrote to President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking their intervention and calling for a probe into the allegations.

On September 11, the Chief Justice of India summoned Justice P.D. Dinakaran to New Delhi and confronted him with the allegations in the presence of some other senior judges. Justice Dinakaran denied all the allegations.

(Following the complaints and the discreet enquiries, the name of Justice Dinakaran was delinked from the list of recommendees, and the four Chief Justices have since been elevated and taken over as Judges of the Supreme Court.)

On December 14, 75 non-Congress Rajya Sabha MPs submitted a notice of Motion to Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, seeking the impeachment of Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran under the Judges (Enquiry) Act 1968.
The Rajya Sabha Chairman admitted the plea on December 17.

Charges of land grabbing and other irregularities have been leveled against a Chief Justice of a High Court.
Reports from the Intelligence Bureau and District Collector of Tiruvallur District Collector lend prima facie support to the allegations.

To make matters worse, impeachment proceedings have already been initiated against Justice Dinakaran in the Rajya Sabha.
Politicians being what they are, some will support, while others will oppose the move purely for political considerations.
There can be no possible reason for not supporting the move and going ahead with the proceedings, which are in the nature of investigative proceeding, if only to clear him of all the charges.

Dinakaran is not sitting on any bench and not discharging any judicial functions.
Justice D. V. Shylendra Kumar (58) of the Karnataka High Court has publicly demanded that Justice Dinakaran should go on leave. He has demanded that a meeting of the Judges of Karnataka High Court should be called to decide this issue.

This demand is not in good taste, most unfortunate and is not legally tenable.
Under which provision can the Judges of the Karnataka High Court sit and decide what the Chief Justice should or should not do?

The Chief Justice of a High Court has constitutional powers to discharge judicial and administrative functions.
Even the Chief Justice of India cannot force him to do otherwise.

Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma who was the Chief Justice of India from March 25, 1997, to January 18, 1998 and the author of the judgement on the issue can be considered an authority on the subject.
He has discussed the issue whether Justice Dinakaran can be denied promotion or not in his several interviews widely reported by the media.
You can see his views at:
http://www.thehindu.com/fline/fl2520/stories/20081010252003500.htm 

There is no doubt that Justice Dinakaran can be denied promotion.
He can be transferred.
And of course, he can be impeached.
What the final outcome will be, I really do not know.

But the issue has become very ugly.
Justice Dinakaran should not behave like petty government functionaries and insist on proper evidence.
The sacred institution of judiciary has already suffered far too much damage.
To save the sacred institution from further erosion in values, Justice Dinakaran should gracefully resign.

Not being appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court itself is humiliating.
A transfer would spell disaster.
Impeachment would be last straw in the unfortunate chain of events.

A lot of judicial impropriety has already been committed and perpetuated in this extraordinary and unfortunate case.
Justice Dinakaran – act with the grace and dignity the occasion and circumstances demand.

Tender your resignation!