New Delhi, June 10 (UNI) The Supreme Court Monday criticised the Delhi government for failing to address defects in its plea seeking a directive for Haryana to release surplus water provided by Himachal Pradesh to reduce Delhi’s water crisis.
A Vacation Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Prasanna B Varale deferred the Delhi Government’s petition to Wednesday and said, that the defects in the petition have not been removed yet.
“We do not want to be carried away by the excessive media coverage on this matter and would prefer to read the case file first,” it said.
The court said that the defects in the petition have not been removed and no status report and other affidavits have been placed on record till date.
The Court warned Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi government that if the defects that were pointed out by the court last week were not removed by the next date (Wednesday) it would dismiss the petition, Justice Mishra warned.
Justice Mishra told Singhvi, “You cannot take this court for a ride, let your office verify that you removed the defects in the petition, or we dismiss it.”
The matter pertains to a petition filed by the Delhi Government seeking directions to the Haryana and Himachal Pradesh Governments to release surplus water to the national capital.
The water flows from Himachal Pradesh through Haryana to Delhi. Himachal Pradesh had agreed to release water but since it had to flow through Haryana, directions were required to be given to them to let the water flow through.
The Supreme Court had on June 6, taken note of the urgency and directed the Himachal government to release 137 cusecs of water. The court also directed Haryana to facilitate the same and enable smooth onward flow of water from Himachal to the national capital.
The water passes through the canal in Haryana before reaching Delhi.
In Monday’s hearing the Court took strong objection to the Delhi government’s failure to remove defects in its petition.
