HC asked to quash Centre’s notification on all irrigation projects in TS, AP

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Development Forum (TDF) represented by D Panduranga Reddy and others filed a petition in the Telangana High Court with a prayer to quash the notification issued by the Centre by which it took control over all irrigation projects in Telangana and AP.

When the Registry raised concerns regarding the maintainability of the PIL in the light of the express bar on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Courts in adjudicating inter-state river water disputes as per Section 11 of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act, 1956, the matter was brought before the division bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C V Bhaskar Reddy.

The petitioners argued that the Centre issued the notification exercising powers under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, though the matter is not a “water dispute” as defined under Section 11 of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act. They further argued that the High Court has jurisdiction to rule on the Central government’s wholly “illegal, arbitrary and harsh action in usurping all of the State government’s powers”.

Assisting the court, Additional Advocate General J Ramachandra Rao claimed that the PIL’s subject matter was not an interstate water dispute and that he had actually provided the State Government with legal advice on the matter so that it could challenge the notification by bringing a lawsuit before the Supreme Court of India, as allowed by Article 131 of the Indian Constitution.