The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it does not want to “shut the door” to an amicable settlement of Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYl) canal dispute as the Centre expressed its keenness to find a solution, saying it had convened a high-level meeting of Punjab and Haryana on April 20.
“We do not want to shut the door to an amicable solution,” a bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said while deferring to April 27 the final hearing in the matter relating to execution of its verdicts favouring construction of SYl canal.
The observation came when Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, said, “A meeting has been called at the highest level on April 20. The Government of India is very keen to find a solution.”
While giving the Centre a chance to explore possibilities of an out-of-court settlement to the water dispute between the two neighbouring states, the top court made it clear that it would proceed with the hearing on the next date if the bid fails.
“Some other things have cropped up,” the bench said when senior advocate Shayam Divan, appearing for Haryana, reminded it about the previous order.
The apex court also said that the only issue which remained was the execution of its verdicts allowing construction of the canal.
During the brief hearing, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Punjab, said he has been saying that the dispute cannot be settled by the judiciary and the parties should sit together and try to find a solution.