Telangana HC dismisses KCR's petition against Narasimha Reddy Commission
Hyderabad: In a setback to former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, the Telangana High Court on Monday dismissed his petition that sought a stay on a government order appointing an inquiry commission headed by (Retd) Justice L. Narasimha Reddy, to probe into alleged irregularities in the procurement of power from Chhattisgarh and establishing Bhadradri Thermal Power Station (BTPS) at Manuguru and Yadadri Thermal Power Station (YTPS) at Damaracherla by the erstwhile state government led by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
Observing that there are no merits in the petition, the High Court dismissed as preliminary matter and evidence are inadmissible.
The division bench of the Telangana High Court comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar, while dismissing the petition, observed that Chandrashekhar Rao has failed to prove the plea of bias against Justice (Retd) L. Narasimha Reddy, and said that the allegation of bias cannot be inferred but has to be established.
The bench also observed that the court cannot lose sight of the fact that Justice L. Narasimha Reddy was a Chief Justice and worked as constitutional functionary. The allegation of bias against him is solely based on the statement reportedly made in the press conference and no other material has been produced by Chandrashekhar Rao to show that the proceeding before the Commission is vitiated on account of personal bias.
Further, the court also said that it is evident that the conference was held to update the media about the status of the proceedings before the Commission. The relevant extracts do not contain any material so as to indicate that the former judge had pre-judged the issues pending before him.
On the issue of terms of reference to the commission, the division bench observed that the contention of Chandrashekhar Rao that the commission does not have jurisdiction to adjudicate the issues, which have been already decided by the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission, which are quasi judicial bodies, does not a deserved acceptance.
The bench said that it is evident that the Terms of Reference are far wider than the issues adjudicated by the State Regulatory Commissions.