By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday allowed a plea by a judicial body to be impleaded in the case involving Sikkim High Court Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran who faces corruption and other charges.
The Forum for Judicial Accountability (FJA) wants to implead in the hearing of the petition by Justice Dinakaran seeking the quashing of the Judges Inquiry Committee (JIC) probing charges of corruption and encroachment of public land by him.
Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, however, said the FJA would confine itself to oral submissions and would not make any written submissions.
The FJA move was opposed by senior counsel Amarendra Saran, who appeared for Dinakaran and argued there was no scope for a third party to get into the proceedings.
Resuming the inconclusive argument of Monday, Saran told the court that the presence of senior counsel P.P. Rao on JIC was fraught with bias against the petitioner.
Justice Dinakaran has also contested the April 24 order passed by JIC chairman Justice Aftab Alam rejecting his plea for the recusal of Rao from the committee.
He told the court that the impugned proceedings of the JIC were held on Sunday – a day before the scheduled hearing on April 25.
Justice Singhvi said this was not a material factor.
Appearing for JIC, senior counsel U.U. Lalit said Rao was responding to the call of duty after Vice President Hamid Ansari asked him to be a part of the probe committee.
Lalit said that at no stage Rao made any allegations against Justice Dinakaran.