The law does not mandate that the recommendations of a judicial inquiry must be implemented. It is enough for the government to submit the report and an accompanying action taken report to the legislature. As a result, even the demand for judicial inquiries has become ineffective.
Published Aug 09, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 09, 2025 | 9:00 AM
Just because something is called a “Judicial Commission of Inquiry” does not mean that justice will be served.
Synopsis: Had the Justice PC Ghose commission report been written properly, it could have served as a valuable document detailing the injustice done to Telangana, the betrayal of public trust, the squandering of public money, the authoritarianism of political leadership, the corruption and servility of the bureaucracy, and the predatory behaviour of contractor lobbies. But it seems the current ruling party has no interest in either exposing or correcting the wrongs done to Telangana. It appears to view this inquiry and report solely as a means of political vendetta and as a weapon to attack opponents.
As soon as I saw the summary of the report by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose’s Judicial Commission of Inquiry, I was reminded of a headline from thirty years ago: “No justice, no inquiry!”
That was during the time when journalist Ghulam Rasool and his friend Vijaya Prasad, who was with him and possibly with an apprehension that he might become a witness, were shot dead in a fake encounter.
Due to widespread protests by journalists, the then government under N Janardhan Reddy appointed Justice TLN Reddy as a Commission of Inquiry. The Commission was meant to determine whether the two were actually killed in a genuine encounter or if they were captured and executed in an extra judicial way.
But without even touching upon that question, the Commission made every effort to establish that the two were indeed Naxalites. When the report came out, the Andhra Pradesh Working Journalists’ Union and the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee jointly brought out a small critical booklet, most likely titled by Dr K Balagopal, called No Justice, No Inquiry!
Just because something is called a “Judicial Commission of Inquiry” does not mean that justice will be served or that a proper inquiry will be conducted.
In earlier times, when governments were reluctant to act on illegalities or violations, people’s movements used to demand judicial inquiries.
These were expected to be more transparent and public than courtroom procedures, helping to bring multiple facets of the issue to light and enhance public awareness.
But the law does not mandate that the recommendations of a judicial inquiry must be implemented. It is enough for the government to submit the report and an accompanying action taken report to the legislature. As a result, even the demand for judicial inquiries has become ineffective.
Whether it was the properly conducted Justice Bhargava Commission on Emergency era encounters or the unjust reports like Justice Mukhtadhar’s on the Rameeza Bee rape case, Justice TLN Reddy’s on Ghulam Rasool’s encounter and revolutionary activists’ disappearances, nothing concrete ever came from these inquiries.
In the first nine and a half years after the formation of Telangana, though this demand was raised multiple times by public movements, the KCR government did not appoint even a single judicial commission.
Though the Supreme Court mandated an inquiry into the Disha encounter, leading to the appointment of the Justice Sirpurkar Commission, and even after that commission produced a reasonably good report, none of its recommendations were acted upon.
This brief history is necessary because the current Justice PC Ghose Commission was technically appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, and therefore can be called a judicial inquiry. But even here, there is no real justice and no real inquiry.
At most, one can say there are a few truths in the report, but mostly it is full of politics. And those truths are ones that Telangana absolutely needs to know. But the political content reeks clearly of malice and ulterior motives.
Since the full 650-page report of Justice PC Ghose is yet to be made public, it would be unfair to comment directly on it. The government appointed a three-member officials’ committee to study and summarise the report. This team, within just two days, read the 650-page document and produced a 60-page summary. So, for now, we can only comment on that summary.
From the very beginning, the Kaleshwaram project has faced criticism. Many questioned its design, the concept of lift irrigation, the location of barrages, reservoirs and canals, the costs, declared objectives, and lack of transparency. There have been countless doubts about its technical, financial, administrative and transparency aspects.
Personally, I have written at least ten articles on it over the last nine years, and delivered even more talks. All those who raised objections were branded by the ruling party at the time as “traitors to Telangana” and “anti-development elements”.
The rulers made no attempt to introspect whether there was anything to reconsider in their actions, or whether any of the critics’ points were worth accepting. They insisted that only they knew what was best for Telangana and that people must accept whatever they gave with their monopoly, with no room for alternatives.
This authoritarian mindset was particularly glaring in the case of the Kaleshwaram project.
But however much the rulers tried to suppress, discredit or ridicule the critics, nature itself validated those criticisms. First, the Godavari floods in July 2022 exposed defects in the Kaleshwaram construction. Then, in October 2023, the sinking of Medigadda pillars once again highlighted the flaws.
Since this happened just a month before the elections, it provided an unexpected advantage to the then opposition. In between, the May 2023 raids on the former CMD of WAPCOS revealed irregularities and corruption in its much touted reports.
In this context, within just four months of taking office, on 14 March 2024, the Revanth Reddy government appointed Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose as a one-man commission to inquire into Kaleshwaram irregularities.
The Commission was tasked with investigating three specific areas: irregularities, wastage of public funds, and corrupt practices with regard to the barrages at Medigadda, Sundilla and Annaram.
Accordingly, seven terms of reference were laid out. The Commission began its work on 27 April 2024, examined 119 witnesses, and submitted its report to the government on 31 July 2025.
Had this report been written properly, it could have served as a valuable document detailing the injustice done to Telangana, the betrayal of public trust, the squandering of public money, the authoritarianism of political leadership, the corruption and servility of the bureaucracy, and the predatory behaviour of contractor lobbies.
But it seems the current ruling party has no interest in either exposing or correcting the wrongs done to Telangana. It appears to view this inquiry and report solely as a means of political vendetta and as a weapon to attack opponents.
Since the full report will anyway have to be tabled in the Assembly, and since the session is expected within ten days, there was no real need to rush out a summary and a press conference within two days.
The only explanation seems to be a desire to conduct retaliatory politics and carry out a continuous smear campaign against opponents. One gets that impression the moment the 60-page summary is opened.
The summary begins with “critical observations by the Commission on the political leadership responsible for the irregularities”, taking up fourteen pages. If the summary had followed proper method, it should have listed what inquiry was conducted under each term of reference and what findings were reached.
Identifying the guilty parties should have come last, as it was the seventh item in the terms of reference. But since the main intent of the summary authors seems to be to sling mud at political opponents, that part was brought to the very beginning.
Select sentences of what the Commission supposedly said about then Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao, and Finance Minister Etala Rajender were highlighted in boldface. Regardless of the truth of those remarks, picking out one or two stray lines from a vast document and exaggerating them is not the correct approach.
Moreover, the number of such remarks is telling: twenty on KCR (twenty eight if sub-points are included), nineteen on Harish Rao, and one on Etala Rajender. This entire exercise reeks of vendetta and seems to be a deliberate attempt to generate negative impressions about the trio even before the full report is made public.
According to the summary, the report contains the following findings:
The summary also says that IAS officers and engineers, along with contractors like L&T, Afcons and Navayuga, were held responsible. It states that the entire affair resulted in increased costs, wasteful expenditure, off budget borrowings and rising interest burdens.
In truth, all these criticisms were already present in my articles, lectures and the writings of many others. Nothing new has been said. The difference is, those earlier criticisms stemmed from love for Telangana, from a desire to protect public wealth, and from a democratic spirit that decisions affecting people’s lives should not be taken arbitrarily.
But when one looks at this summary or even the ministers’ comments on it, there seems to be no trace of such sincerity. What comes through instead is a clear political motive, to sling mud at opponents under the guise of a judicial report or official summary.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
