The elevation of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran, facing allegations of land- grabbing, to the Supreme Court has been effectively put on hold with the Centre being asked to process only the names of four other judges cleared for promotion along with him.

"We have only asked that the names of four other judges (high court chief justices) should be processed for their appointment as judges of the Supreme Court," Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of the All-India Conference of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

Justice Balakrishnan however said no decision has been taken on dropping Justice Dinakaran for promotion observing that his name has only been ‘delinked’ from the other four judges at this stage for elevation.

When asked about media reports that Dinakaran's name has been dropped, the CJI, who at first only replied, "No, no", later said, "We have not taken any decision as yet".

Balakrishnan, who appeared reluctant to speak to the media, said the decision asking the government to process the names of other four judges means that Dinakaran's name has been ‘delinked’ at this stage for his appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court.

The five-judge Collegium headed by CJI had earlier cleared along with that of Dinakaran the names of A K Patnaik, T S Thakur, S S Nijjar and K S Radhakrishnan, Chief Justices of the Madhya Pradesh High Court,Punjab and Haryana High Court Calcutta High Court and Gujarat High Court respectively.

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