The Supreme Court Monday said the decision on releasing water from rivers’ canals is in the domain of the government and the judiciary has no role to play in it.
The court have the ruling while dismissing an application filed by an organisation from Gujarat’s Kutch region, which sought more water for canals in the area.”We are of the opinion that the prayer for allocation of adequate water in Kutch district is not one which can be a matter of judicial review. It is for the executive authorities to look into this matter,” said the apex court bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice C.K. Prasad.
The court said this while dismissing an application by Kachchh Jal Sankat Nivaran Samiti challenging a Gujarat High Court decision dismissing their plea for direction to the state government to release more water to canals running through the Kutch region, which constitutes one-fourth of the state’s area.
The high court verdict was delivered Oct 4, 2005.The apex court referred to the high court verdict which said that there were no judicially manageable standards for the adjudication of the allocation of water in favour of any region within the state.
The court said the government was the best judge to decide how much water should be released from the Narmada canal to Kutch and how much water should be left for other regions.
“All these decisions require delicate balancing and consideration of complex social and economical factors which cannot be brought under judicial scrutiny,” said the court.
