SKC report disturbing, says judge

The judge perused in his chamber the report submitted to him in a sealed cover. He later returned it in a sealed cover to the Additional Solicitor General of India, M. Ravindran.

Justice Narasimha Reddy was hearing arguments in a case filed by former MP Narayan Reddy seeking publication of the chapter eight of the report. Mr. Ravindran brought the eighth chapter in a sealed cover and requested the judge to read it. He said that he was instructed to say that this chapter was based upon sensitive intelligence reports, security concerns in the event of final decision on the Telangana issue.

He said that after reading the report, if the court felt it need not be withheld, then the government would file counter affidavit and arguments would be forwarded to sustain the decision of the government to keep it away from public gaze. He further said that if the court came to the conclusion that this chapter need not be made public, the case would be closed. Justice Reddy reminded Mr. Ravindran that he did not pass any order to look into the report and he was going to read it at the request of the government.

The judge retired into the chambers and read the report for about 20 minutes. As soon as he entered the court hall, Justice Narasimha Reddy was seen controlling himself. He said that the contents made disturbing reading. He minced no words and said that it was unfortunate that a retired Supreme Court judge was made to associate with such exercise. He said that the tone and tenor of the report were not good for democracy.

Later, the judge passed an order declaring that the contents kept in sealed cover had a bearing on the course of action which may be taken by the political establishment and the public were entitled to know its contents. Before passing the oral order in open court, the judge wondered whether even the political rivals would ever make such sweeping comments found in the concealed chapter. He said that the court would fail in its duty if it did not respond to such a situation.

A disgrace

He persuaded the Additional Solicitor General to look into last two pages of the chapter. After reading the four paragraphs, Mr. Ravindran commented that they need not have gone into all this. The judge went on to say that the contents were a disgrace.

He passed severe comments about the attitude of the members of the committee in preparing such report. The case would be listed on March 3 so that arguments would be advanced by both sides on the question whether to make the contents public or not.

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