By Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday fixed Sep 18 for hearing a presidential reference on the validity of a law enacted by Punjab terminating its agreements with neighbouring states on sharing waters of the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari said the presidential reference on the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 to the court will be heard Sep 18 by a five-judge constitution bench.
Referring the Punjab government’s law to the court in 2004, President A.P.J Abdul Kalam had sought its opinion on its constitutional validity.
He had also asked whether the act had absolved Punjab of its responsibilities of implementing the directions of the court’s two judgements for construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYL) canal.
All neighbouring states including Delhi and Haryana had opposed the Punjab law.
Delhi in its affidavit had said that the act was unconstitutional and “it sets up a bad precedent and, if it is followed by other states, the water supply system in the National Capital Territory of Delhi would be seriously impaired affecting the life and liberty of people”.
Haryana had contended that the law violated the provisions of the constitution as well as the basic principles and tenets concerning federalism and the rule of law.
It said, “Inter-State agreements come into being by reason of negotiation and the consent of all the parties hitherto. They cannot be resiled from or terminated by one of the party-states much less abrogated with retrospective effect as if they never existed. The purported termination of the agreements of 1955 and 1981 by the Punjab Act is ineffective in law and impermissible under the constitution.”
The Punjab government, however, asserted that its obligation of implementing the SYL canal agreement stood discharged under this law.
It said that, “the act of 2004 does not disturb the existing actual utilisation” by the neighbouring states and maintained that, “the Punjab government was competent to enact the legislation since parliament had not made any law under the union list of the constitution insofar as Ravi and Beas waters were concerned.”
The state had enacted the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 on July 12, 2004 after the Supreme Court directed it to construct its portion of the SYL canal.
After the government enacted the law, refusing to abide by the court’s directions, the central government decreed on July 22 a presidential reference in the matter to the court seeking its opinion.
The presidential reference came up for hearing before a five-judge bench of the court on Aug 2, 2004, when the notices were issued to the union government as well as the governments of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi, for entering appearance and filing of statement – of facts and law both.
The matter has been hanging fire since then.