HC extends protection order to KCR, others till March 2 in Kaleshwaram case

The Telangana High Court on Friday extended the protection order till March 2 to former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, former Minister T. Harish Rao, former Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi and IAS officer Smitha Sabharwal as their respective counsels concluded arguments in separate writ pleas they filed seeking suspension of P.C. Ghose Commission report over Kaleshwaram project.

The bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin, which heard the writ petitions filed by four of them separately granted an order on September 2, 2025 restraining the State government from taking any adverse action against them based on the findings of the Ghose Commission report which indicted them. Presenting his contentions, Mr. Chandrashekhar Rao’s counsel Dama Sheshadri Naidu said the Commission had the powers of a civil court. Any person appearing before a civil court was naturally given an opportunity to answer the allegations levelled against him.

The Commission did not give an opportunity to the former CM to submit his arguments. Having declared that the petitioners were at fault in execution of the Kaleshwarwam Lift Irrigation Scheme, the Commission ought to have provided a chance to the petitioners to explain their stand, the counsel said.

The Commission had examined nearly 190 witnesses as part of the Inquiry but did not give an opportunity to Mr. Chandrashekhar Rao to cross-examine them, the senior counsel argued. Before the Commission’s report was tabled in the Assembly, a shortened version of the report in the form of a presentation was divulged to the media, he said.