Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Secret T-report in sealed cover

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad,April 25: On Monday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru and Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar of the AP High Court stayed the March 23 order to make public the secret Chapter 8 of the Justice Srikrishna Committee report. When the matter come up for hearing, Justice Kakru had a brief discussion with Justice Afzulpurkar and granted the interim stay and directed the Centre to submit the secret report to the registry in a sealed cover.

Mr Gandra Mohan Rao, representing the petitioner, Mr M. Narayana Reddy, a former MP, urged the bench not to grant any interim order without seeing the secret report. He pointed out that the Centre had anyway not made the chapter public. He said that the petitioner did not want to file a contempt petition on the Centre till the final outcome of the appeal. At this, Justice Kakru asked counsel: “Keep aside your case. If anyone goes to the Centre along with the judgement and applies for a copy of the secret note, what would be the say of the Centre?”

When the counsel did not reply, the Chief Justice said they have to know what is in the secret report to apply their mind in passing final orders. That is why they had granted the stay till final disposal of the case, Justice Kakru explained. Mr Vivek Tanka, additional solicitor-general, told the court that the secret chapter would be furnished to the registry within a couple of days.

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