SC orders status quo on Satlej Yamuna Link canal
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered status quo on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and appointed the union home secretary as well as the Punjab chief secretary and police chief as the court's receiver of the canal and assets associated with it. A constitution bench headed by Justice Anil R. Dave said: "Prima facie, it appears that an effort has been made to see that the 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 that status quo shall be maintained by the parties... "In the circumstances, the Secretary, Home Department, Union of India, (ii) The Chief Secretary, State of Punjab and (iii) The Director General of Police, State of Punjab, are appointed as court receivers... and all the properties... shall be deemed to have vested in them and they shall also see that status quo is maintained with regard to the properties... Appointing the court's receivers, as prayed for by Haryana, the court said that the status quo is maintained in respect of "lands, works, property and portions of the SYL canal and all lands within the alignment of the SYL canal within the territories of the state of Punjab" which are covered by its 2002 and 2004 judgments. The court order would affect the transfer of 3,928 acres of land along the 122-km stretch of the SYL canal in Punjab to the farmers from whom it was acquired for the construction of the water channel for transporting 3.5 Million Acre Feet of water to Haryana. The SC bench, which also has Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, Justice Shiva Kirti Singh, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Amitava Roy, gave the order on an application by Haryana seeking appointment of the central government as the court receiver of the land, works, property and portion of the SYL canal in Punjab. Haryana had also sought to restrain Punjab from publishing the Punjab Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal (Rehabilitation and Re-vesting of Proprietary Rights) Bill in the official gazette. The bill was passed by the Punjab assembly on March 14. The constitution bench is holding a hearing on the presidential reference seeking apex court's advisory opinion on the 2004 law passed by Punjab during the rule of Congress government led by Amarinder Singh, terminating all water-sharing agreements with neighbouring Haryana and other states.
