The Rajya Sabha-appointed committee has finally chargesheeted Sikkim Chief Justice P D Dinakaran on 16 charges of corruption and financial irregularities thirteen months after impeachment proceedings were first admitted against him with further debate slated for next Parliamentary session.

A three-member committee of Supreme Court Justice Aftab Alam, Karnataka Chief Justice J S Khehar and senior advocate P P Roy issued the chargesheet against justice Dinarakaran last week on 16 March following its appointment by Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Hamid Ansari in January 2010.

Justice Dinakaran who has been asked to file his reply by 9 April 2011 but was hit with 16 charges by the committee, including possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of income, land-grab charges, illegally encroaching on property meant for Dalits and other marginalised sections, stamp duty evasion and illegal construction.

Meanwhile, committee member Justice Alam had replaced justice V S Sirpurkar who was originally appointed to head the panel but later recused himself when his neutrality was brought into question by a Chennai-based advocacy group that had spearheaded the campaign against justice Dinakaran.

The panel had been appointed at the demand of 75 Rajya Sabha legislators.

Dinakaran was transferred to the Sikkim High Court after his refusal to go on leave pending impeachment proceedings in August 2009 after a senior-jurists probe blocked him from being elevated to the apex court in September 2009.

Dinakaran was recommended for the top judicial post by a Supreme Court collegium headed by former Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan who had recently come in the line of fire for financial irregularities.

Impeachment proceedings were unlikely to occur in this parliamentary session, law minister Veerappa Moily said last week.