In a setback to the Punjab government, the Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped the 2004 Punjab Act that was passed to end all water agreements the state had with its neighbours. Congress leader Amarinder Singh quit the Lok Sabha and other party lawmakers resigned from the Punjab Assembly minutes after the Supreme Court verdict.
Ruling that Haryana will get the canal water, SC said Punjab has no right to break the agreement on water sharing with Haryana. The apex court asked the Centre to continue the work on the canal, which will carry the water to Haryana.
Amarinder Singh blamed Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for entering into the water-sharing agreement in the first place. “Haryana will never get the water,” he told News18.
Punjab and Haryana have been locked in a bitter battle over sharing of river waters, especially through the controversial Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal.
The Punjab Assembly, in 2004, had abrogated the water agreement with Haryana by passing a bill in the Punjab assembly. The Congress was in power in Punjab at that time.
The bill went to the President for assent and was referred to the Supreme Court after Haryana objected to it.
“All the questions have been answered in the negative,” a five-judge bench headed by Justice AR Dave said, while pronouncing its decision on the presidential reference received by it.
The judgment makes it clear that the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 is ‘unconstitutional’ and Punjab could not have taken a ‘unilateral’ decision to terminate the water sharing agreement with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh.
The bench, which also included Justices PC Ghose, Shiva Kirti Singh, AK Goel and Amitava Roy, was unanimous in holding that all the five questions of Presidential reference have to be answered in the negative.
Captain Amarinder Singh’s resignation letter as MP to Lok Sabha speaker protesting the Sutlej Yamuna link canal row Verdict. pic.twitter.com/C9WWOYr1bG
— ANI (@ANI_news) November 10, 2016
