Hyderabad, April 26: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday stayed the publication of Chapter-VIII of the Srikrishna Committee report on the Telangana issue which had been kept a secret due to the sensitive nature of its contents.
A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Nissar Ahmad Kakru and Justice Vilas Afzalpurkar issued the directive on an appeal filed by the Centre against an earlier order of the High Court facilitating the publication of the relevant chapter.
The bench also directed the Centre, represented by Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tanka, to submit the controversial chapter in a sealed cover.
Acting on a petition filed by a former MP from Mahabubnagar, a single- judge bench of the High Court had in March dismissed the concerns of the government and found the Srikrishna panel’s observations, incorporated in Chapter-VIII, “unwarranted” and certain paragraphs outside the scope of its terms of reference.
The petitioner argued before the two-judge bench that there was no need to stay the earlier order, pointing out that the government had not yet made public the secret contents.
–Agencies