Hyderabad: In a setback to the Telangana government, Justice (retired) L. Narasimha Reddy has stepped down as the one man commission of inquiry (CoI) tasked to look into alleged power sector irregularities during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti government after the Supreme Court took exception to a press meet addressed by him during the “ongoing and confidential” inquiry.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud was hearing a petition by former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao challenging the order of the Telangana high court refusing to stay the inquiry by the CoI.
The matter came up before the bench before it broke for lunch. Addressing the counsel for Telangana’s government, A.M. Singhvi, CJI Chandrachud said at this stage that Justice Reddy had crossed the bar by holding a press meet and expressing his opinion on the merits of the case.
CJI Chandrachud also said “we are giving you an opportunity to replace the commission”.
After the bench reassembled post lunch, the counsel informed that Justice Reddy wanted to give up his task as the CoI. At this, CJI Chandrachud directed the state government, represented by Singhvi and Sidharth Luthra, to issue a notification substituting Justice Reddy with another person.
Rao had appealed to the Supreme Court against alleged bias by Justice Reddy and certain remarks made by the latter at a press conference announcing summons issued to 25 persons, including Rao and senior officials, to explain their role in the state’s power sector development.
Rao had also said that the Congress government instituted the commission out of political vendetta.
The former chief minister also described the commission of inquiry as illegal. Photo: X/@TelanganaCMO.
He was represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi.
After the summons were issued to him, Rao had in a 12-page reply to Justice Reddy requested him to step down. He questioned the propriety of the commission when the state’s electricity regulatory commission was competent to go into matters raised by the state government.
The government had set up the commission by a notification in March to probe irregularities in a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Chhattisgarh as well as the construction of the Bhadradri super thermal power station at Paloncha in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district and the Yadadri thermal power station at Damaracherla in Nalgonda district.
It was alleged that the PPA with Chhattisgarh was a huge drain on the finances of the government as power was purchased at a high price.
The execution of the power project at Paloncha was taken up with sub-critical technology, while the plant at Damaracherla was far away from coal mines, resulting in transportation cost overheads.
Rao responded by saying that the PPA was signed with Chhattisgarh to overcome the state’s critical power situation. The unit cost of power was also cheaper than made out to be, he said.
Regarding the two power plants, he said the execution of the one at Paloncha was awarded to BHEL as it had the required expertise. It was decided to have the plant at Damaracherla as it was in the Krishna basin, while all other power projects in the state were in the Godavari basin, he added.
Rao described the CoI as illegal.
