HC orders disclosure of Srikrishna panel's supplementary note

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday ordered that the supplementary note submitted by the Justice Srikrishna Committee to the Union government along with its report on situation in the state in the light of an agitation for a separate statehood for the Telangana region be made public.

Allowing the writ petition filed by former MP M Narayana Swami seeking a direction to make the secret note public, Justice L Narasimha Reddy granted two weeks’ time to the Centre to make the report public.

The court observed that there were no sensitive or security aspects involved in the note as claimed by the Centre and that withholding the note from public was arbitrary and unreasonable.

The Judge stated that a meaningful discussion with reference to the report could not take place unless the secret note was made public.

Referring to the contents of the three-page supplementary note that was shown to him during the hearings of the case, the Judge said the committee had gone beyond its terms of reference to persuade the Centre not to accede to the demand for Telangana state.