New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned for June 12 the hearing of the Delhi government's plea for the release of surplus water from Himachal Pradesh as the people of the national capital are facing a shortage of water.
A vacation bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Prasanna B Varale took strong objection to the Delhi government's failure to remove defects in its petition and deferred the hearing.
It noted that the status report and other affidavits are not on record in the case as defects in the petition have not been removed.
The bench also warned the counsel for the Delhi government to dismiss the case.
"You cannot take this court for a ride. Let the office verify that you removed the defects and if you did not, then let the petition be dismissed. It will be dismissed," the bench remarked.
The bench, while hearing the case, also remarked that it would prefer to read the files first so that they wouldn't get swayed by the media coverage of the case.
"List it the day after tomorrow so all the reports, etc. are on record. We also want to read the file. There is so much reporting in media and if we do not read files, then the media reports can impress us and that is not a good thing," said Justice Mishra.
On the last day of the hearing on June 6, the top court allowed the State of Himachal Pradesh to release 137 cusecs of surplus water available with it and directed the Haryana government to facilitate the flow of the surplus water from Hathnikund barrage to Wazirabad uninterruptedly to Delhi to mitigate the drinking water crisis in the national capital.
It had asked Himachal Pradesh to release surplus water on June 7 with prior intimation to Haryana.
It had also asked the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) to measure water released by Himachal Pradesh at Hathnikund in Haryana. (with Agency inputs)
