Hyderabad: With the Telangana government informing the High Court on Friday that it would take further action on the judicial commission's report on the Kaleshwaram project “only after a discussion in the state Assembly”, the High Court asked the state government not to make the Kaleshwaram report public and asked it to file a counter within three weeks and posted the matter for next hearing after five weeks.

The court on August 21 asked Advocate General Sudarshan Reddy whether the government intended to take action based on the findings of the report before placing it on the floor of the House and posted the matter to Friday.

During the hearing for the second day on petitions filed by former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and former minister T Harish Rao seeking to quash the report, the Court asked the government to remove the report from the public domain if it was already kept.

Observing that the petitioners appeared prejudiced due to the alleged leak of the report’s contents through a government press conference, the HC said the report should not have been made public before being presented in the Assembly for discussion. The HC said that there was no need for giving interim orders on the petition filed to quash the PC Ghose Commission report.

KCR and Harish Rao had filed two separate petitions challenging the Kaleshwaram Commission’s report. The Court on Friday heard the arguments of KCR and Harish Rao. The Court said that it cannot give stay sought by the BRS MLAs. The Advocate General A Sudarshan Reddy informed the government’s decision to the Court. He said that the government would be presenting the Kaleshwaram report in the Assembly. He said that after discussion in the Assembly, the government would take a decision on the report.

The counsel for Harish Rao, Aryama Sundaram, had sought a stay on the entire report of the commission.

He pointed out that the government would take a decision based on this report and pleaded with the court not to take any decision on his clients. He also pointed out that even before the Assembly could discuss the report, the government released a 60-page report of the Justice PC Ghose Commission before the media defaming his clients. He told the court that they had not been given proper notice under 8B and 8C.

The High Court judges intervened and questioned the AG, representing the government, as to why they had given notice under Section 5(1) instead of section 8B.

The AG told the court that the notice they had given was a notice like 8B. He reminded the court that Harish Rao and KCR were members of the Assembly. In this context, the AG stated that action would be taken only after this report is presented in the Assembly.

The AG explained to the court that there would be six months’ time available with the government to present this report in the Assembly.