Chief justice of Karnataka High Court PD Dinakaran, whose proposed elevation as the judge of the Supreme Court has been on hold, today questioned the motive behind the campaign against him and said he will come out with "clean hands".
The judge, who has been at the centre of a controversy over alleged land-grabbing, said his delicate position as chief justice has forced him to observe self-restraint to "counter and expose" the people behind the campaign which ultimately would not succeed and "truth will prevail".
"It is not for me to prove my innocence. A day would come when people would realise that I am a person with clean hands and heart. I will come out of this with clean hands," Dinakaran told PTI.
However, he refused to comment on reports about the law ministry's decision to return the file about recommendation to elevate him to the Supreme Court Collegium.
Dinakaran, who questioned the timing of the opposition to his elevation as the judge of the apex court, said, "I have to maintain self-restraint as chief justice. I am holding a delicate post and will maintain the self-restraint. Ultimately the truth will prevail."
The 59-year-old judge said his career as a judge for the last 13 years has been "clean and spotless" without any controversy and only after the recommendation, people from a certain quarter started a malicious campaign against him through media.
"No one questioned my integrity for over 13 years since I became the judge of the High Court. I have been the chief justice of Karnataka High Court for last 16 months. Only ten days after the recommendation for my elevation to the Supreme Court, certain people started campaign against me through media," he said.
A confident Dinakaran said "I know public do not believe all these things which have been going on". He said the campaign against him was going through the media without verifying the facts and journalists should go to Tiruvallur to verify the facts by themselves.
"I have an open offer for the media to go and verify the facts and expose the truth," he said asserting that the reports of land grabbing against him was false.
Dinakaran met the CJI and some judges of the Collegium on Friday night and is understood to have claimed that reports of the Collector of Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu relating to alleged land grabbing by him were not correct.
