Ansari reconstitutes panel probing against Dinakaran

G Mohan Gopal has replaced Rao, a Rajya Sabha notification said here.

Gopal is Director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

The committee will continue to have Supreme Court judge Aftab Alam as chairman and Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court J S Khehar as one of the members.

Justice Dinakaran had questioned the unbiasedness of Rao in the apex court.

While asking Ansari to replace Rao with another jurist, the Supreme Court had made it clear that the nomination of another jurist will not hamper the proceedings of the committee and the reconstituted panel will proceed on the charges already framed against the High Court Chief Justice.

The inquiry proceedings against Justice Dinakaran started on January 16 last year by a committee headed by Justice V S Sirpurkar. Justice Alam headed the committee after Justice Sirpurkar recused in September, 2010.