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Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan has defended Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran, who is facing impeachment proceedings, saying the allegations against the CJ surfaced only after a proposal for his elevation to the Supreme Court.
"It (the matter against Dinakaran) has now gone to impeachment proceedings. I don't want to talk anything about the integrity or anything that happens -- because ultimately he has to defend himself," Balakrishnan told CNN-IBN during an interview.
When queried on whether he thought that there was a vilifying campaign going on against Justice Dinakaran, the CJI said, "There was not a single allegation when he was a judge of the Madras high court; there was not a single allegation till his name was recommended by the Supreme Court collegium for elevation. All these allegations have been raised when his name was suggested to be elevated."
When pressed further on whether Justice Dinakaran's past was blemish-less, Balakrishnan said, "To my knowledge, it seems to be the case."
Speaking on the recent judgment of the Delhi high court, which made it mandatory for the CJI to disclose his assets under the Right to Information Act, he said, "The media thinks I am against RTI. It is not like that. At no point of time was I against the disclosure of assets. Some people will give an unfavourable report against the Chief Justice, some times they will say give good report. If these are published under the RTI act, it will seriously affect the image of the judiciary. Now at present, in the RTI act, there is no exemption for the judiciary. In UK, the judge's office is exempt from RTI."