New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that the Union water resources ministry had written in June this year to Chief Justice H.L. Dattu to recommend the name of a High Court judge for filling the vacancy in the Krishna river water disputes tribunal.
Counsel for the Centre gave this information before a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant hearing petitions filed by TS, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra questioning the tribunal’s award.
In its fresh petition, Telangana said the right to access water being a human rights issue, fresh allocation of water must be made and the earlier award should be set aside. It said that under the law the Centre had to take a decision within a year for setting up a new tribunal after receiving a complaint.
But till date the Centre had not taken any decision and not responded to the TS complaint. It said the Centre had a legal obligation to refer the dispute to a new tribunal but it had failed to do so and hence the present writ petition has been filed. It sought a direction to the Centre to set up a fresh tribunal.
TS wanted a fresh tribunal to be constituted to resolve the Krishna water dispute.
