New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday told the Centre that there was "no valid purpose" in resisting the setting up of a tribunal to deal with the dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over the Mahanadi river water-sharing dispute.
The court said it was "disappointed" that the Centre had not yet issued a notification on the constitution of a tribunal to deal with the ongoing issue despite having submitted before the top court in October that a decision would be taken in this regard by November 19.
However, the Centre told a bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao that Odisha had not participated in the negotiations on the issue.
"Are you (Centre) saying if they (Odisha) do not come for negotiations, a tribunal cannot be constituted," the bench asked. Odisha has been opposing Chhattisgarh's plans to build 13 barrages and seven pick up weirs (small dams) across Mahanadi river, in a plan to extract more water. Odisha has said this would adversely affect the interests of its farmers.
Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, representing the Centre, referred to a 1983 agreement between Madhya Pradesh and Odisha and said there was a mechanism to deal with the issue.
"We are disappointed at this. We were told that you will issue a notification," the bench said, adding "you had made a statement that a notification will be issued for constitution of a tribunal. You had made this statement before the court."
When the Centre told the court that Odisha was not coming forward for negotiation in the matter, the bench observed, "failure of negotiation has nothing to do with it. Odisha is saying they do not want to negotiate. If they are not coming forward, it is failure of negotiation".
Nadkarni told the bench that they had already filed a written statement before the court in the matter and a mechanism already existed.
The counsel representing Odisha told the court that no negotiation could be done in the matter and a tribunal should be constituted.