New Delhi, Aug. 26: The Supreme Court today trashed the argument that a charge of misbehaviour against a judge must relate only to his conduct on the job while dismissing Justice P.D. Dinakaran’s contention that a probe panel overstepped its brief while framing charges against him.

The objection “that the misbehaviour of a judge in order to constitute a basis for his removal must relate to the conduct of the judge in the discharge of his duties is… without substance. It amounts to saying that it does not matter if beyond the court hours a judge is a thief in his personal life,” the two-judge bench said.

Dinakaran, who faces impeachment, has claimed the House had referred 14 charges to the committee but the panel had filed 16, using material not referred by the House.

Dinakaran’s argument is similar to the one made by Justice Soumitra Sen when he spoke on August 17 in his own defence in the Rajya Sabha during a hearing on his impeachment motion.

“If the applicant’s argument is accepted, it would take the soul out of Section 3 of the act and render the investigation… completely ineffectual,” the court said. “A committee consisting of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, a chief justice of a high court and a distinguished jurist is not a committee of draftsmen.”

One allegation against Dinakaran is he owns assets disproportionate to his income.