NEW DELHI—During the April 11 hearing on the Satluj Yaumuna Link (SYL) Canal case in the Supreme Court, Punjab’s legal counsel, Ram Jethmalani, told the court that Punjab could not share water with other states while its farmers starve. Jethmalani explained that statistics from 1921-1945 estimated the volume of water in the Ravi and Beas at 17.1 MAF (million acre-feet). However, now the volume of water has receded by 18% to 13.36 MAF.
Jethalmani argued that Punjab could not share water with neighbouring states because it did not have enough water to sustain itself. Jethmalani contended that according to internationally accepted riparian law, Haryana does not hold any right to the water of the Beas and Ravi rivers. He said that the water sharing agreements of a state needed to be periodically revised in accordance with evolving circumstances and international laws on water sharing.
However, on an earlier April 8 hearing before the Supreme Court, the legal counsel of Rajasthan’s government, CS Vaidhyanathan, had countered Punjab’s argument by citing the Indus Water Treaty which Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru made with Pakistan in 1960 in order to channel river water to desert areas. Vaidhyanathan had argued that Punjab could not pass any laws to cancel its pacts with neighboring states regarding the sharing of water. The law he was referring to was the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act of 2004, which was passed by the Punjab legislative assembly and sought to cancel water-sharing pacts.
Jethmalani responded by claiming that a state holds the right to cancel its pacts with other states. He cited the Inter-State Water Dispute Act, which required state governments to consider the changing circumstances of river water volume when making decisions regarding water allocation.
In an earlier hearing on the case, all other states involved in the case had backed Haryana’s argument that the Punjab assembly could not cancel its pacts with neighboring states. Dehli’s counsel had also supported Haryana, and had allegedly claimed that when the Punjab government passed a law to return the SYL Canal land back to the farmers who originally owned it, it had set a bad example.
This led Deputy Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab, Sukhbir Badal, to say in a press conference held in Ajnala that AAP Chief and Dehli CM, Arvind Kejriwal, had back-stabbed Punjab by allowing Delhi’s counsel to support Haryana’s arguments against Punjab. Badal said that the Delhi government’s actions in court exposed the hidden intention of AAP to dominate in Punjab. He claimed that the AAP was against Punjab on the SYL Canal issue.
Arvind Kejriwal had made statements earlier backing the Punjab government on the SYL Canal issue during his Punjab visit. Bhagwan Mann, who is an AAP Minister of Parliament from Sangria, had also reiterated that AAP would not allow the SYL canal to be built at any cost.
The court has deferred the next hearing in the case to April 18.