Water-sharing row: HC notice to Centre, Hry, BBMB on Punjab plea for recalling May 6 order

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday sought response from the Union and Haryana governments as well as the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) on a plea from the Punjab government, seeking recall of a May 6 court order that directed the state to allow the release additional 4,500 cusecs of water from the Bhakra dam for meeting the emergent needs of Haryana

Chandigarh : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday sought response from the Union and Haryana governments as well as the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) on a plea from the Punjab government, seeking recall of a May 6 court order that directed the state to allow the release additional 4,500 cusecs of water from the Bhakra dam for meeting the emergent needs of Haryana.

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday sought response from the Union and Haryana governments as well as the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) on a plea from the Punjab government, seeking recall of a May 6 court order that directed the state to allow the release additional 4,500 cusecs of water from the Bhakra dam for meeting the emergent needs of Haryana.

“The court has issued notice for May 20,” senior advocate and former advocate general Gurminder Singh, who appeared for Punjab, said after the hearing.

On May 6, the high court directed Punjab not to interfere with the functioning of BBMB — a central body that manages and regulates water in Bhakra, Pong and Ranjit Sagar dams — and to abide by the Union home secretary’s May 2 decision asking the board to release additional 4,500 cusecs of water to Haryana.

The Punjab’s plea, filed on Monday, contended that the May 6 high court order was “illegal as the court was misled into believing” that the meeting held under the chairmanship of the Union home secretary on May 2 was conducted under Rule 7 of the BBMB rules, 1974, which requires a reference made by the board’s chairman on the water-sharing issue.

“The direction in question was passed on account of concealment of material facts by non-applicant parties in the writ petition who have failed to bring true and correct facts to the notice of the court,” the plea alleged.

The Punjab government has contended that the Union power secretary is the competent authority to deal with disputes around water sharing under the BBMB Act, and not the Union home secretary. The formal minutes of the May 2 meeting were not recorded, and only a press note was produced which, the plea alleged, formed the basis of the “misleading information” that led to the May 6 court order.

The order had come on a BBMB plea seeking the withdrawal of additional police deployment at Nangal dam, which it said was “illegal and unconstitutional”, and alleged it was being prevented from complying with the Centre’s directions.

The controversy dates back to April 28 when Haryana demanded 8,500 cusecs of water from the Bhakra dam, which was approved by BBMB. However, Punjab refused to accept the decision and deployed police at the Nangal dam, 13km downstream from Bhakra, to stop the additional water release. The Union home ministry stepped in on May 2 and directed that additional water be released to Haryana. However, the BBMB said the order could not be complied with as Punjab police prevented board officials from discharging their duties.

Punjab has maintained that Haryana has already overdrawn its water quota and was “demanding irrigation water under the guise of drinking needs”.

The additional water could not be released even after the high court intervention of May 6. On May 9, BBMB chairman Manoj Tripathi, in an affidavit, told the court that board officials were prevented by Punjab Police from releasing the water. This led to the court asking the Punjab DGP and chief secretary to submit names of these officials and reiterating that additional water be released to Haryana.

In response to the affidavit filed by the chairman, the Punjab government has filed another application alleging that Tripathi “knowingly/intentionally submitted a false affidavit before the court on May 9” and demanded contempt proceedings against him for submitting a false affidavit. This application is yet to be taken up by the court.

The BBMB was established by the Union power ministry in 1966 under Section 79 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, which regulates water distribution from Bhakra, Nangal, Pong, and Ranjit Sagar dams among Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan.