Author:
Publication: Outlook
Date: October 5, 2009
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262026
There's nothing in the judge's modest beginnings
to hint at his extensive present holdings
In Arakkonam, Justice Dinakaran's hometown,
his father, Paul Ponnuswamy, is remembered as a drawing and physical training
teacher at the now defunct Hindu High School, not as a landlord. They were
originally from Varathur village and lived on a rented property till Ponnuswamy
constructed a small house around 1973. This house has now been redone and
is perhaps the only one with an air-conditioner in the neighbourhood.
In the '70s and '80s, the house stood next
to a cinema hall and the lane leading to it was congested, as it is today.
Ponnuswamy's family, the townspeople recall, was quite big: four boys and
one girl, and they also had the two spinster sisters of the judge's mother
living with them. Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar, as the judge was then known,
went to the csi elementary school and then St Andrews High School in town
before joining Pachiyappa College in a nearby town for his pre-university
course. Later, he graduated in chemistry from Madras Christian College before
going on to a degree from the Madras Law College.
Around 1976, he joined the office of lawyers
Rathan & Jacob as a junior. Two years later, he joined N.R. Chandran,
an additional government pleader. It is in Chandran's office that he learnt
the ropes of the profession and began to take an interest in cases pertaining
to school and service matters. After quitting Chandran's office, he has been
essentially on his own. He never practised in Arakkonam itself, but in the
late '70s and early '80s he was known to catch the Jolarpettai Express around
7 am daily with a few of his friends to reach Madras for work.
A friend of the family said Justice Dinakaran
married Dr Vinodini in 1981 at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Aravankadu,
near Ooty. The friend also conveyed to Outlook that Dinakaran's father-in-law
was a retired security personnel and did not seem to possess vast tracts of
land.