In order to enforce judicial discipline, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a series of orders of a division bench of the Karnataka high court questioning some administrative directions of its controversial Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran on listing of certain cases being heard by the bench.
Terming the action of the division bench (DB) of Justices D.V. Shylendra Kumar and N. Ananda as “defiance” of the Supreme Court guidelines for the judges how to deal with the matters related to judiciary, the apex court after issuing an interim stay order referred the matter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) for further action. “Since the matter concerns the judicial discipline, we request the Secretary General (of SC) to convey this decision to the CJI,” a vacation bench of Justices Deepak Verma and K.S. Radhakrishnan said adding “we think this will serve the purpose and good sense will prevail (among judges).”
Disapproving the series of interim directions by the DB seeking administrative records, including orders passed by Justice Dinakaran on listing of certain tax related cases pending before the bench, the apex court said summoning of the Registrar General and Registrar (Judicial) and seeking explanation from them was uncalled for.
The DB orders had virtually turned into an inquiry against the functioning of Justice Dinakaran, who is facing impeachment motion for alleged land grabbing and a series of allegations of corruption.
“We made it clear that Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran is not taking up the judicial work but for all practical purposes, he has the exclusive jurisdiction over (HC’s) administrative matters. Under the facts and circumstances, we feel it fit to stay the operation of the interim orders passed by the DB.” “It further appears to us that the interim orders passed by the DB are in defiance of the judgement of the Supreme Court (Rajasthan vs Prakash Chand case), which lays down guidelines as how the judges should conduct themselves while dealing with the judicial matters. The said directions, in our opinion, have been violated (by Justices Kumar and Ananda) ” said the Supreme Court’s vacation bench in a strongly worded order.
The interim direction of the apex court came on a petition high court’s registrar general questioning the validity of Justices Kumar and Ananda’s orders.