The Telangana high court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao seeking to stall the ongoing judicial probe into the alleged irregularities in the state’s power sector during his regime.
A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti, which reserved its orders on Friday after hearing the arguments of the petitioner and the government, pronounced its judgement on Monday, a copy of which was reviewed by HT.
KCR, as the BRS chief is popularly called, in his petition in the High Court on June 24, questioned the constitution of the Justice L Narasimha Reddy Commission to investigate into the alleged irregularities in the purchase of 1,000MW of power from Chhattisgarh and also the construction of the Bhadradri and Yadadri Thermal Power Plants during the previous regime.
The former chief minister argued that the order issued by the Congress government on March 14, constituting the judicial commission, was in violation of the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 and Electricity Act, 2003. “The commission has no jurisdiction as the terms of reference were subject matter of adjudication before both Telangana and Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commissions,” he said.
Stating that the judicial commission had served him a notice asking him to file a reply on or before June 15, the BRS chief pointed out that even before he could submit the reply, Justice Narasimha Reddy held a press conference on June 11, affirming that there were irregularities in the power purchase from Chhattisgarh and the construction of Bhadradri and Yadadri power plants.
{{/usCountry}}Stating that the judicial commission had served him a notice asking him to file a reply on or before June 15, the BRS chief pointed out that even before he could submit the reply, Justice Narasimha Reddy held a press conference on June 11, affirming that there were irregularities in the power purchase from Chhattisgarh and the construction of Bhadradri and Yadadri power plants.
{{/usCountry}}“The proceeding initiated by the Commission suffers from bias and the issue pending before it has already been pre-judged,” KCR argued and told the court that he had written a letter to Justice Narasimha Reddy to recuse himself from heading the commission.
However, the High Court bench rejected KCR’s argument that the commission’s observations at the press conference were pre-judged. “The press conference was held to update the media about the status of the proceeding before the Commission. It does not contain any material so as to indicate that Justice Narasimha Reddy has pre-judged the issues pending before him,” the bench said.
The bench also refused to buy the argument of the former chief minister that the judicial commission had no jurisdiction to inquire into the power purchase agreement or the construction of the two power projects. It said the terms of reference of the judicial commission were far wider than the issues adjudicated by the state power regulatory commissions.
Stating that the Commission of Inquiry is purely a fact-finding body and is required to collect facts through evidence produced before it, the bench said the Justice Narasimha Reddy commission shall submit its report to the government, which may or may not accept.
“It has neither any power to pronounce a binding or definitive judgment nor has power to enforce its report,” the bench said.
The judicial commission would give a reasonable opportunity to the petitioner of being heard in the inquiry and producing evidence in his defence, the bench added.