Supreme Court to address Delhi's additional Water Supply Issue on June 12

The Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) informed the Supreme Court that it cannot verify if Himachal Pradesh is complying with the court's order to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to Delhi. This announcement came shortly after the Supreme Court directed the Himachal Pradesh government to urgently release additional drinking water to Delhi. UYRB explained that Himachal Pradesh lacks storage facilities to measure the extra water flow and there is no data available to confirm if the state has released the surplus water after meeting its own needs.

Hearing adjourned

A Supreme Court vacation bench, led by Justice PK Mishra, postponed the hearing to June 12. This decision was made because a copy of the UYRB report was not available to the court. Additionally, the Haryana government, which is also involved in the case, claimed to have submitted a document to the court. The bench criticized the Delhi government for not correcting a filing error, which delayed the receipt of reports and applications in the case. The court warned that the petition would be dismissed if the errors were not fixed.

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Compliance issues

Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, representing the Centre and the UYRB, along with senior advocate Wasim Qadri, stated that the UYRB filed its status report as per the court's June 6 order. This order required Himachal Pradesh to release 137 cusecs of surplus water to Delhi and directed Haryana to ensure this water reaches Delhi through the Wazirabad Barrage. The UYRB reported that Himachal Pradesh does not have the capacity to store and release the additional water. It also noted that Himachal Pradesh had not provided complete information on its water usage, making it impossible to estimate the surplus water available for Delhi.

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The UYRB mentioned that it had written to both Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to establish ways to measure the excess flow at the Hathnikund Barrage (HKB). While Haryana responded, Himachal Pradesh did not. The Board noted that Himachal Pradesh claimed the 137 cusecs of water was already flowing to the HKB, but it was not releasing any additional water as per the Supreme Court's order.

The court emphasized the importance of reviewing the reports due to extensive media coverage of the case, stating that it should not be influenced by media reports without examining the actual files.