The Jaganmohan Reddy Cabinet has stood by its word and approved the draft bill of Judicial Commission for streamlining the tendering process. But the Cabinet says that the panel will be headed by a High Court sitting judge or a retired judge. It has not specified that only a sitting judge will be there as per the earlier statements of the YCP government. There are many hurdles for getting the approval of the Supreme Court to get a sitting judge for the post. Even then, the Cabinet has gone ahead and approved the panel formation.

Why is CM Jaganmohan Reddy so serious about forming the Judicial Commission? CM argues that it will bring transparency and prevent any scope for corruption and irregularities in the tendering process. The Opposition leaders are closely following the game plan of Jagan in all this. One view is that Jagan’s plan is to give no opportunity to the TDP to criticize award of works in large-scale projects. As a judge will be involved in the process, it will technically and automatically force the Opposition to remain silent. Any criticism of the tendering process will mean criticism of the Judicial Commission itself.