Retired Judge L Narasimha Reddy clarifies on resignation

Hyderabad: Following the Supreme Court’s directive to the Telangana government on setting up of a probe panel on power sector irregularities, Justice L. Narasimha Reddy (retired) on Tuesday said that he was bowing out “to uphold the dignity of the judicial fraternity.”

In a statement, Justice Narasimha Reddy observed that the last thing for a judge or a former judge was to be biased. “If such a necessity arises, the very office of the commission would lose its sheen.”

Justice Narasimha Reddy claimed that the commission had held the press conference to reveal about the contours of enquiry and the progress made till then.

Reporters who were regularly attending the press briefings by another commission of inquiry, headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, on the floor above the Power Commission Office, “have been pestering my office about the progress of the inquiry and began publishing speculative reports,” Justice Narasimha Reddy said.

“To put an end to that, I held a press conference to apprise the reporters about the contours of enquiry and the progress made till then”, he clarified.

Justice Narasimha Reddy also stated that the very nature of his inquiry commission was to conduct hearings in public. For the same purpose, a notification was issued inviting representations from the public, he said.

Talking to the media in Delhi, Justice Narasimha Reddy asserted that there was nothing wrong in holding press meets. Hundreds of commissions appointed since the days of former prime minister Indira Gandhi had conducted them. It has been a common practice for a chairman of every commission to hold a press meeting. “During the briefing, I told about the terms of reference of the commission, but not giving the opinion”, he said.

The commission wrote letters to 28 persons and all of them replied with their observations except former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. “KCR in his letter to the commission used language which no civil society will accept,” he said and added: “The purpose of constituting the inquiry of commission is to inform the public,” he said.

Stating that he never spoke with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Justice Narasimha Reddy said the state government can accept or reject the report given by the commission. Similarly, anyone can challenge the report, he said.