The Supreme Court has appointed receivers in the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal dispute between Punjab and Haryana.
It has also sought a report from them by December 15 on the present status of land and other properties on the canal site.
A Bench of Justices P.C. Ghose and Amitava Roy asked the Union Home Secretary, the Punjab Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Punjab Police to report back to the apex court by December 15 the present situation of the lands in question.
The court made it clear that the Receivers will not take possession of the disputed lands meant for the SYL canal project.
A five-judge Constitution Bench had on November 10 set aside the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004 which “unilaterally” terminated the 1981 water-sharing pact of the State with Haryana.
The Punjab government had already denotified the lands acquired for the SYL canal project to return them to the farmers. However, after a decree of the court, no legislative action is allowed and surely not executive action to defeat the decree.
