SYL Canal dispute can’t be decided on law alone without considering ground realities: SC
As the vexed Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal dispute between Punjab and Haryana has defied any solution for decades, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the issue can’t be decided on the basis of law alone and that ground realities have to be taken into account to resolve the issue.
“These matters cannot be decided only on (the basis of) law. Other factors have to be taken into consideration. It’s not like a paper decree between two brothers that half of the land has to be allotted to each of them,” a Bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih said.
Senior counsel Shyam Divan, representing the Haryana Government, however, asserted that the top court’s 2002 decree requiring the state of Punjab to construct its part of the SYL Canal has to be implemented. “If you want to have a strong federation… people have to obey the orders of the court. You can’t have a situation where, after the decree, states unilaterally overturn it… Everybody has to work towards implementing the decree.”
The Bench took exception to the Punjab Government’s “high-handedness" in refusing to implement the top court’s order to construct its part of the canal and de-notifying the land acquired for the purpose.
“They (Haryana) discharged their duty and constructed a 100-km canal… but you (Punjab) did not construct the 90 km you had to," it noted.
“Was it not the act of high-handedness that once the decree was passed for the construction of the canal, the land acquired for the construction of the canal was de-notified? This is trying to defeat the decree of the court. This is a clear case of high-handedness," Justice Gavai told senior advocate Gurminder Singh.
Noting that the decree should not be executed at the cost of unrest in the border state of Punjab where it has become an emotive issue, Gurminder Singh said alternative measures needed to be explored.
This has become a very emotive issue with the public, it is not the government’s thing. Punjab, being a border state, could not afford unrest on this issue. Therefore, whatever the measures the government of that time had taken, have been adjudicated. It is not as simplistic as Haryana is trying to put it," he told the Bench.
Divan urged the Bench to decide the matter, saying efforts to resolve the issue through mediation had failed and Punjab had taken the law into its own hands.
As senior advocate PS Patwalia told the Bench that an application had been filed by certain landowners, the Bench clarified that its earlier order for status quo would remain limited to the land required for construction of the main SYL Canal to link it to the part already constructed by Haryana.
At the end of the hearing, the Bench directed the governments of Punjab and Haryana to cooperate with the Centre in reaching an amicable solution to the dispute.
The Bench was informed by the Centre that it has already taken effective steps to resolve the issue amicably. “We direct both the states to cooperate with the Union of India in arriving at an amicable solution, " it said.
The Bench said it would hear the matter on August 13, if the dispute isn’t resolved by then.
“We have made efforts for mediation, but the states have to walk the talk, " Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, told the Bench.
Punjab