The Supreme Court on Monday took strong objection to the Delhi government for not removing defects in its petition seeking release of 137 cusecs of surplus drinking water from Himachal Pradesh for people of the national capital facing acute water shortage.

The court posted the matter for hearing on Wednesday.

Deferring the hearing, a vacation bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Prasanna B Varale noted that the status report and other affidavits are not on record in the case as defects in the petition have not been removed.

Warning the advocate appearing for Delhi government in the case, the bench said that it will dismiss the case if defects in the petition are not removed.

“You cannot take this court for a ride. Let the office verify that you have removed the defects and if you did not, then let the petition be dismissed. it will be dismissed,” the bench remarked.

The bench also remarked that it would prefer to read the files first so that they won’t get swayed by the media coverage of the case.

“List it the day after tomorrow so all the reports etc. are on record. We also want to read the file. There is so much reporting in the media and if we do not read files, then the media reports can impress us and that is not a good thing,” Justice Mishra said, taking exception to the failure of Delhi government to remove defects.

Last week – June 6 – the Supreme Court had permitted the Himachal Pradesh government to release, on Friday (June 7), 137 cusecs of its surplus water to meet the acute shortage of drinking water in the national capital. It had also directed the Haryana government to facilitate the flow of water through its canal network so that the water released by Himachal Pradesh from Hathnikund Barrage reaches Wazirabad Barrage in Delhi “uninterrupted”.

“Considering the urgency, we direct Himachal Pradesh to release the water tomorrow (June 7) with prior intimation to Haryana and Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) shall measure the water for onward supply. Compliance reports will be submitted on Monday (June 10), list on Monday,” the Court had said in its order on June 6, 2024.

The top court had also asked the Upper Yamuna River Board to measure water released by Himachal Pradesh at Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana.

On June 3, the Supreme Court had asked the Upper Yamuna River Board to convene an urgent meeting on June 5 of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Centre to address the problem of acute water scarcity being faced by the people in the national capital in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave. Posting the matter for today, the vacation bench had asked the UYRB to place before it the minutes of the meeting and the suggestions to deal with the situation in the national capital.

On May 31, Delhi government had approached the top court to get immediate additional water from neighbouring Haryana. It has said that the people of Delhi were faced with an acute shortage of water because of the ongoing severe heat conditions in North India, particularly in Delhi.

Delhi government has sought direction to Haryana government for immediate and continuous release of water at the Wazirabad barrage. It has sought the surplus release of water by Haryana as a one-time solution to redress the present emergency and resolve the ongoing water crisis in Delhi.

The plea by Delhi government says that because of record-high temperatures and heatwave in Delhi, which has resulted in maximum temperature soaring up to around 50 degrees Celsius at some places, have caused an extraordinary and excessive surge in water demand in the city.