Telangana HC adjourns hearing in Kaleshwaram Commission case to January

Hyderabad, Nov 12 (IANS) The Telangana High Court has adjourned hearing on the petitions by former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, former Chief Secretary S. K. Joshi and senior IAS officer Smitha Sabharwal, seeking orders to quash the report of the Justice P.C. Ghose (retd) Commission probed the alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.

A bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin adjourned the hearing to the second week of January after the state government sought time to file counter-affidavits.

The court gave four weeks to the government to file counter-affidavits and another three weeks to the petitioners to file their reply.

It extended, till the next hearing, the interim order restraining the state government from taking any action against the petitioners on the basis of the Kaleshwaram Commission report. The interim order was passed on September 2.

The state government, on September 1, decided to hand over the probe into the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had made the announcement in the Assembly after a marathon debate on the Ghose Commission report.

The petitioners contended that the very constitution of the Commission should be declared arbitrary and illegal, as it was made against the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act.

According to them, the Commission made the findings regarding their conduct and reputation without following the prescription of law under 8B and 8C of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, and violated the principles of natural justice.

The petitioners argued that the Commission’s report was invalid, prejudicial, scurrilous and defamatory against them.

Headed by former Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose, the one-man commission submitted its report to the Telangana government on July 31.

The Commission was constituted on March 14, 2024, to probe the alleged irregularities in planning, design, construction, quality control, operation and maintenance of Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla Barrages of the Kaleshwaram project constructed during the term of the previous BRS government.

The Commission held KCR directly and vicariously accountable for irregularities in planning, execution, completion, operation and maintenance of the Kaleshwaram project. It also indicted Harish Rao, then Chief Secretary Joshi and then Secretary to Chief Minister Smitha Sabharwal.

--IANS

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