SC extends stay on HC order on Pradhan report

The Supreme Court on Friday extended its stay on the Bombay High Court order,directing the Maharashtra Government to place before it the report of the Pradhan committee which had probed the governments response to terror attacks in Mumbai in November last year.

Advocate Lalit Bhasin,appearing for Society of Indian Law Firm SOILF,said the stay on making the report public has no meaning when the entire report has been published in a magazine. The entire report has been published in a magazine and there is nothing confidential in the report, he argued before the bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam. He also alleged that the state government is not making the contents of the report public because of the upcoming Assembly polls and asked the court to direct the state to comply with the Bombay HC directive.

Opposing his arguments,senior advocate Harish Salve,appearing for the state,argued that if the report has been published in the magazine,the curiosity of those concerned for making it public has been satisfied.

He urged the court that the stay on the Bombay HCs decision for making public the report be allowed to continue till further orders.

The apex court had on August 8 expressed annoyance over the Bombay HCs directions,dated July 24,and asked why the former was acting like an expert on a sensitive matter like security.