159. SC stops politics over SYL canal orders status quo

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN | Mar 18, 2016, 04.25 AM IST

New Delhi: Nearly 12 years after it ordered construction of Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, the Supreme Court on Thursday cracked the whip to stop election-eve politics to frustrate canal construction and directed the Punjab government to maintain status quo on the canal land.

A five-judge constitution bench comprising Justices A R Dave, P C Ghose, S K Singh, Adarsh K Goel and Amitava Roy slammed the politics over SYL canal, which had tacit support of Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal whose party AAP is contesting assembly elections in a big way and the Congress.

The bench said, "Prima facie it appears that effort is being made to make the 2004 decree of the Supreme Court (directing construction of SYL canal) unexecutable. The court cannot be a silent spectator to this."

It directed the Union home secretary and Punjab's chief secretary and director general of police to take control of the entire stretch of land in Punjab acquired for construction of SYL canal and "strictly maintain status quo".

The order was passed after Haryana's counsel Shyam Divan showed media reports about farmers using earthmovers and bulldozers, allegedly at the behest of politicians, to level the land meant for construction of SYL canal.

Divan forcefully argued that the legislative step taken by Punjab was unconstitutional and against the very soul of federal structure envisaged by the Constitution. "If a state can be allowed to take such steps which is in the teeth of the Supreme Court's decree, then the other state will also resort to extra-constitutional methods to protect its right. And that will spell the end of constitutionalism and federalism," Divan said.

When Punjab's counsel, Ram Jethmalani and Rajeev Dhavan, opposed the interim stay saying they needed time to get instructions on the ground situation, the bench shot back, "We had drawn the attention of Punjab government on Monday to the issue when Haryana pointed out the bill being moved in the assembly. Can the Punjab government say that photographs showed about levelling of SYL canal land are false" the bench asked.

It also brushed aside the Centre's arguments through solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, who wanted time to find out whether the central government had taken steps to construct the canal as per the 2004 decree in the last 10 years of UPA rule.

Punjab's successive political regimes have scripted a unique story of defiance of the SC's orders. On December 31, 1981, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan entered into an agreement to share rive waters of Ravi, Beas and Satluj between them and also with Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. It was also agreed that Punjab would construct the SYL canal in its portion within two years.

The SC in January 2002 directed Punjab to continue digging SYL canal and make it functional within one year. Punjab sought review of this order. The SC dismissed the review in March 2002. Undeterred, Punjab filed an original suit in 2003 seeking discharge from its obligation to construct SYL canal.

The SC in its final judgment of June 4, 2004 directed the Unionn government to mobilize a central agency to take up construction of SYL canal in Punjab under the supervision of a high-powered committee and directed Punjab to hand over land to the central agency.

Immediately thereafter, the then Congress government in the state passed a law on July 12, 2004 scrapping its water-sharing agreements with neighboring states. This forced the central government to send a presidential reference on July 22, 2004 seeking the SC's opinion on the constitutionality of the Punjab legislation.

When the matter was finally taken up for hearing by the SC 12 years later, the state was going into elections and most political parties agreed to the legislation that was aimed at frustrating the SC's decree for construction of SYL canal. The new legislation by the Akali-BJP government intended to cancel the land acquired for SYL canal and return it to farmers.