The Punjab Government’s attempts to restore the land acquired for construction of the Satluj-Yamuna link Canal (SYl) to its original owners suffered a major setback on Thursday in Supreme Court, which ordered status quo on the said land and appointed a joint committee of Union Home Secretary, Punjab Chief Secretary, and Director General of Punjab Police to oversee implementation of its order.
The order came on an application filed by the Haryana Government citing news reports that showed erstwhile land owners taking forceful possession of the SYl land, its property and filling the dug-out canal with soil using earth movers and JCBs. The land owners had acted in anticipation of a law passed by Punjab legislative Assembly called the Punjab SYl Canal (Rehabilitation and Re-vesting of Proprietary Rights) Bill 2016, which is yet to receive Governor’s assent.
Although Punjab opposed the order for status quo, the bench of Justices AR Dave, PC Ghose, Shiva Kirti Singh, Adarsh Goel and Amitava Roy asked senior advocates Ram Jethmalani and Rajeev Dhavan appearing for Punjab, “Do you deny what is stated in the newspaper reports and in the application by Haryana Government. You could have done something if you wanted to on the earlier date (March 14).”
Restricting the Punjab Government to proceed any further on the law, the bench said, “Prima facie, it appears that an effort has been made to see that execution of a decree of this Court is being made inexecutable and this Court cannot be a silent spectator of the said fact and therefore, we direct status quo…”
Senior advocate Shyam Divan who argued for Haryana had submitted that the action of Punjab was to defeat the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court which is yet to decide the right of both States under a water-sharing agreement of December 1981. Despite orders passed by apex court in the past directing Punjab to share water with Haryana and other States by constructing SYl Canal, Divan pointed out that the new law sought to be introduced by the Punjab Assembly amounted to challenging the authority of Supreme Court and verdicts given from time to time.