Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh High Court
today reserved its judgement on a writ petition seeking a
direction to the Centre to disclose Chapter 8 of the Justice
Srikrishna Commission report which was not made public.
After hearing arguments from Additional Solicitor
General Ravindran who represented the Centre, high court judge
Narsimha Reddy posted the matter to March 3 to pronounce his
orders.
Earlier, Ravindran contended that there is no binding
nature attached to the report submitted by the Srikrishna
Commission.
He argued that the report was only recommendatory in
nature and the government may or may not take it into account
while deciding the issue of carving out separate state of
Telangana from Andhra Pradesh state.
The petition was filed by former MP and senior
advocate M Narayan Reddy challenging the action of the Central
government in not disclosing the contents of the chapter
dealing with the law and order. He had sought a direction for
making public the undisclosed portions of the Srikrishna
Committee report.
The Additional Solicitor General further argued that
the petitioner has no locus standi nor any vested right as
such to seek a direction from the high court to the Centre to
disclose such chapters of the report which the government for
its own reason refuses to disclose.
The five-member committee headed by former Supreme
Court Judge B N Srikrishna had recommended that a united
Andhra Pradesh with constitutional and statutory measures to
empower the Telangana region is the "best way forward" to
answer the long-standing demand for a separate Telangana
state.
PTI
