Hyderabad, February 10: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday adjourned further hearing on a petition pleading that it declare the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee Report as ‘invalid’, to February 17.
The petition, filed by former MP from Nizamabad M Narayana Reddy, urged the High Court to declare the Justice B N Srikrishna Committee (SKC) Report as ‘invalid’, since it did not make public the contents of the crucial 8th Chapter of its Report.
This particular chapter deals with the ‘‘Law and Order and Internal Security Dimensions’ and was submitted to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in a sealed cover.
Though the Central Government had made the rest of the Report public, it did not disclose contents of the 8th Chapter.
The former MP had approached the Court saying that the eighth chapter dealt with “law and order situation and the menace of Naxalism” in the event of forming a separate Telangana State.
Appearing on behalf of the Central Government, Attorney General GE Vahanvati argued that the Justice B N Srikrishna Committee recommendations do not come under the Court’s jurisdiction.
Mr Vahanvati told the Court that, “The problem will be solved politically and there is no need of Court’s interference in the statehood issue.” The Attorney General added that the Government would take a decision on the recommendations of SKC Report.
Mr Vahanvati further added that there was no need to disclose the contents of 8th chapter of SKC Report, since it deals with the security issue and does not go into the issue on hand, the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
When the Court asked the Attorney General whether the Government would disclose the contents of Report to the people, the Attorney General said he would be able to file a proper reply to the question only after consulting the Government.
Later, the court adjourned the case for further hearing on Feb 17.
Mr Narayana Reddy had earlier on February 4 described before media persons that the SKC Report by itself was invalid since the crucial eighth chapter was not revealed to the public.
He had stated that various stakeholders in the state had expressed their apprehensions before the Panel their interactions that the “the state of law and order would be in peril and the menace of naxalism would be rampant in a separate Telangana State”.
This was crucial and the Report, without this particular subject, was ‘invalid,’ Mr Narayana Reddy had contended.
Mr Narayana Reddy had also pointed out that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had himself said that “there was no Naxal menace in the Telangana region as of now,” even as the Union Home Ministry had put off making the entire Report public. This, the former MP had claimed, showed that there was no co-ordination between the Committee and the government.
INN