The probe panel that has been constituted to look into charges of corruption against present Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court, P.D. Dinakaran has come in for some heavy criticism from Chennai based Forum of Judicial Accountability.

The forum has asked Supreme Court judge, Justice V.S. Sirpurkar to recuse himself for impartial conduct of the proceedings.It has been reported that when Justice Sirpurkar was a judge of the Madras High Court he sat on Division Benches together with Justice Dinakaran. They have also worked together on administrative duties and interacted at several official and social functions.

Justice Dinakaran and Justice Sirpurkar’s association continued on a professional and social level even after both were shifted out of the Madras High Court. The forum reports that Justice Dinakaran attended the marriage of Justice Sirpurkar’s daughter in Nagpur and that Justice Sirpurkar also attended Justice Dinakaran’s daughter’s wedding in Bangalore and Chennai subsequently.

Convenor of the forum, R. Vaigai in a petition said, "His (Justice Sirpurkar's) friendly association with Justice Dinakaran as narrated ..., gives rise to a reasonable ground to believe that there is a real likelihood of bias and that his neutrality as a Member of the Committee will be affected by his friendship with and personal knowledge /perceptions of Justice Dinakaran, thus impacting the impartiality of the proceedings and its outcome."

This isn’t the first time that the forum has protested against the constitution of the probe panel. In January of this year, the forum had protested against the inclusion of Justice Sirpurkar. Senior Counsel, Prashant Bhushan had written to the Vice-President that the VP’s office had erred in appointing Justice Sirpurkar as a member and Chairperson of the probe panel, since it had been Justice Sirpurkar who had recommended Justice Dinakaran’s elevation to the Supreme Court.

Last month, Vice-President Hamid Ansari had reminded the probe panel that it had all the powers of a civil court under the Judges Inquiry Act while conducting its investigation. The probe panel had earlier decided it needed additional clarifications to formally frame charges against Justice Dinakaran.

The probe panel will next meet on September 19, 2010 to discuss on issues regarding the framing of charges against Justice Dinakaran.