The ICHR chairman has claimed that the volumes were handed over to the Oxford University Press (OUP) directly by the authors without authorisation by the council. The historians have however pointed out, quoting the minutes of the copy of the council meeting, that the two of had given their manuscripts to the ICHR which were then given to OUP. Both the historians said that they had submitted one copy to ICHR and another copy to S.Gopal, general editor of the volumes. The ICHR accused that the editions had been sent to press without formal approval. Both Pannikar and Sarkar said at a press conference in New Delhi that that they had submitted the manuscripts way back in 1995and that modifications suggested by Gopal were incorporated. They said that they had a letter from the former chairman of the Council which proved that the present dispensation was not telling the truth.

Sarkar and Pannikar also said that they had also not received any communication from the ICHR regarding the withdrawal. They have learnt about this from the OUP to whom the Council had written to.

The historians pointed out that they had always thought that it was Gopal who was the deciding authority in the project and that the Council did not have any review committee and that a committee had been formed only to ``streamline and quicken the pace of the project.’’