New Delhi: The Supreme Court is all set to hear the original suit of the Orissa government Tuesday in which the government had demanded constitution of a tribunal to resolve the inter-state river waste dispute with Chhattisgarh.
The matter has been listed as item number 12 before a two-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao which had earlier heard the matter.
The Tuesday’s hearing is likely to be crucial as the same bench had earlier came down heavily on the Union government for not constituting a tribunal after receiving the application from the state government for more than one year.
The matter was heard December 12, 2017 when the apex court expressed displeasure over the Centre not issuing a notification regarding formation of a tribunal while ordering hearing of the case in the third week of January.
The Union government as well as the Chhattisgarh government had in the last hearing favoured non-constitution of a tribunal. The Union government in the last hearing talked about resolving the issue through the Joint Control Board as envisaged under 1983 MoU between Orissa and undivided Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Water Resources, after the last hearing, had in the Parliament urged the Orissa government to opt for taking the negotiation route to resolve the issue. This will be the eighth hearing of the case in the Supreme Court.
PNN