New Delhi, Jul 27: Just a month before his demise, former President APJ Abdul Kalam had advised DRDO chief Satheesh Reddy to work on reusable missiles system that can deliver a payload and launch it, come back and take another payload.

Reddy was then the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. 

"After I became the scientific adviser, I met him (Kalam) at his residence just a month before his demise. He came up with the idea of reusable missile, delivering a payload, coming back, then take another payload and launch it... 'Work on this type of system', he told me," Reddy recalled.

The meeting was held at the library. 

"That is the vision he had," Reddy added. 

Kalam died on July 27. The former president resided at 10, Rajaji Marg, a single-storey bungalow spread over an area of 11,776 sq ft with the ground floor housing a library and an attached reading space. 

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman said he first came in contact with Kalam as a young scientist in 1986.

In 2012, the then DRDO Chairman V K Saraswat, in an interview to Doordarshan, said India plans to develop reusable missile system. 

"We have propulsion technology, we have re-entry technologies, we have the technology which can take a re-entry system which will deliver a payload and have yet another re-entry system which will bring the missile back when it re-enters the atmosphere on its return journey," Saraswat said. 

Reusable rockets are currently becoming popular. With its Falcon 9, Elon Musk's SpaceX is also looking at capitalising on this technology. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully flight tested Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD).

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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday questioned Justice Yashwant Varma over his plea to invalidate an in-house inquiry panel report indicting him over the discovery of huge cache of burnt cash from his official residence during his tenure as a Delhi High Court judge.

"Why did you appear before the inquiry committee? Did you come to the court that the video be removed? Why did you wait for the inquiry to be completed and the report be released? Did you take a chance of a favourable order there first," a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing Justice Varma.

The top court further quizzed Justice Varma over the parties he had made in his plea and said he should have filed the in-house inquiry report with his plea.

Sibal submitted there was a process under Article 124 (the Establishment and constitution of the Supreme Court), and a judge couldn't be a subject matter of public debate.

"The release of video on SC website, public furore, media accusations against judges are prohibited as per constitutional scheme," Sibal added.

The top court asked Sibal to come with one page bullet points and correct the memo of parties.

The matter was posted for July 30.

Justice Varma has sought quashing of the May 8 recommendation by then chief justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, urging Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against him.

His plea said the inquiry "reversed the burden of proof", requiring him to investigate and disprove the charges levelled against him.

Alleging that the panel's findings were based on a preconceived narrative, Justice Varma said the inquiry timelines were driven solely by the urge to conclude proceedings swiftly, even at the expense of "procedural fairness".

The petition contended that the inquiry panel drew adverse findings without affording him a full and fair hearing.

A report of the inquiry panel probing the incident had said Justice Varma and his family members had covert or active control over the store room where a huge cache of half-burnt cash was found following a fire incident, proving his misconduct which is serious enough to seek his removal.

The three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court conducted the inquiry for 10 days, examined 55 witnesses and visited the scene of the accidental fire that started at around 11.35 pm on March 14 at the official residence of Justice Varma, then a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court and now in the Allahabad High Court.

Acting on the report, then CJI Khanna wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending the judge's impeachment.