Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar

Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar (born 9 May 1950) served as the Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court. He resigned from the post following allegations of corruption and subsequent removal proceedings. He did his schooling and then attended the Madras Christian College, Chennai and studied chemistry. He obtained his Masters in Political Science and Public Administration and Bachelor of Law Degree from Madras Law College. Dinakaran subsequently refused to go on leave when asked by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan and was transferred to the Sikkim High Court. On 29 July 2011 he resigned from the post of Sikkim High Court Chief Justice. He was facing impeachment proceedings from parliament on alleged charges of corruption and judicial misconduct.

Controversies In September 2009, allegations were made against Dinakaran by several members of the Bar Council of India including former Union Law Minister Ram Jethmalani, stating that he had huge assets and land acquisitions in his hometown Arakkonam more than what was fixed by the Tamil Nadu Land reforms. The lawyers requested Chief Justice of India and Union Law Minister not to appoint Dinakaran as Supreme Court Judge and initiate an inquiry into the allegation. The members wrote a letter to President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Law Minister to intervene in this matter.

Justice Dinakaran had not been performing any judicial functions since December 2009 when the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha admitted a motion seeking his removal on charges of corruption and abuse of his judicial office. The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan had decided to replace Justice Dinakaran with Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice JS Khehar, and recommended transfer of Dinakaran to the Sikkim High Court. Later, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh questioned about the desirability of shifting Chief Justices. The Law Ministry returned the file to the collegium for consideration afresh. As a result, the collegium, headed by the then incumbent Chief Justice of India, S.H. Kapadia, met and reconsidered the whole issue and stuck to the earlier decision to shift the Chief Justices. The Sikkim Bar Association opposed the transfer of Dinakaran to the Sikkim High Court and asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the proposal, (which requires approval from Indian President Pratibha Patil). The Sikkim Bar Association president D R Thapa had asked "How come the person be fit to be discharge judicial duties in one state if he has not been found worthy of doing the same in another state?"

Impeachment proceedings and resignation Facing impeachment on charges of corruption and judicial misconduct, he resigned from the post of Sikkim high court Chief Justice on 29 July 2011 expressing "lack of faith and confidence" in the three-member inquiry Committee probing charges against him.

Mysteriously, on 4 August 2011, Justice Dinakaran had a "change of heart" and wrote to the law ministry seeking to withdraw his resignation. But the ministry rejected his request. However, his pre-emptive resignation did manage to scuttle the probe against him as the chairman of Rajya Sabha, Hamid Ansari, quietly buried the inquiry committee citing Dinakaran's resignation in July.

Post retirement benefits On 15 January 2012, it became public through an RTI query that Justice Dinakaran along with his other colleague facing similar accusations Justice Soumitra Sen will keep getting their post-retirement benefits, even though they resigned ahead of impeachment proceedings against them, as there are no Constitutional or statutory provisions restricting their entitlements in such a scenario.