The Centre will be placing the confidential Justice Srikrishna Committee Report on the law and order situation in the state before the Andhra Pradesh high court.
On Wednesday, the additional solicitor-general, Mr M. Ravindran, submitted before Justice L. Narasimha Reddy that the report would be placed before the court in a sealed cover for its perusal.
The judge was hearing a petition filed by the former MP, Mr Narayan Reddy, of Nizamabad, who had complained about the Centre not disclosing the contents of the “secret” Srikrishna Committee Report on law order situation.
During the course of the hearing, the judge on January 29, had asked the attorney-general, Goolam. E. Vahanvati, to be present before the court to assist in dealing with the case. Mr Ravindran informed the court that the attorney-general had sought a week’s time to appear before the court.
The counsel for the petitioner, Mr Gandra Mohan Rao, stated that the Srikrishna Committee had been appointed for consultations and for arriving at a conclusion on the statehood issue and all the contents of the committee’s report must be made available to the people.
He contended that it was not fair to keep a portion of it secret and the people had a right to know about the material on which their fates would be decided. He had thus asked the court to direct the Centre to submit a copy to the court.
Responding to the arguments, Mr Ravindran said that the secret report would be placed before the court in a sealed cover after consulting the ministry of home affairs.
The judge posted the matter to February 9 for further hearing.