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SYL canal: Punjab's petition rejected

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, AUG. 24 . The Central Government is in a fix with the Supreme Court rejecting today a petition filed by the Punjab Government seeking a review of its June 4 judgment directing the construction of the remaining portion of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal in the State.

A Bench, comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi, in a brief order, said that after a careful consideration of Punjab's petition "we find it is devoid of merits." Though the review petition was listed for hearing (by circulation) in their chambers last week, the order was passed today.

After the June 4 judgment, Punjab filed the review petition on July 2. However, on July 12, it enacted legislation abrogating all inter-State river agreements. Finding that the order could not be implemented, the Centre filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking a clarification on how to carry out the orders.

Even as this application is yet to be listed for hearing, the Centre came up with a Presidential reference to the Supreme Court whether the Punjab legislation was constitutionally valid or not. Since only notice had been issued on this reference, the June 4 judgment has become final and the Centre would have to implement it.

Rs. 800 crores spent

The Punjab Government moved the review petition just a day after the Centre entrusted construction of the canal to the Central Public Works Department as per the Supreme Court direction to hand over the job of construction to a Central agency.

The court had entrusted the job to the Centre after the Punjab Government did not go ahead with construction as per an earlier order.

About 80 per cent of the 112 km length of the canal had been built before work was stopped in 1990 and over Rs. 800 crores has been spent.

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